The Government is to press ahead with plans for corporate funding of politics following the Labour Party's rejection of a proposal for an all-party approach, writes Denis Coghlan.
At the weekend the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, accused the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, of being determined to protect corporate funding. He said he did not share Mr Ahern's view that what mattered was the level of such donations and the manner in which they were made, rather than their source.
Mr Quinn said the Taoiseach had rejected the offer to discuss the confining of donations to individual voters in conjunction with the Labour Party Bill before the Select Committee on the Environment.
A Government spokesman said last night it would now go ahead to set limits for corporate funding and for political spending when a Department of the Environment Bill comes before the Dail.
