A KEY piece of legislation that will restrict corporate donations to political parties may not be introduced before the next general election. The Electoral Amendment Bill, a key Green inclusion in last year’s Programme for Government, is not included among the 23 Bills that the Coalition has prioritised for publication during the autumn session.
It is included in a lower priority section of the programme for legislation, published by Government Chief Whip John Curran yesterday.
The Bill, which would put in place legal mechanisms to restrict political donations, has now been earmarked for publication in 2011.
With the three byelections scheduled to take place in the first quarter of next year, there is growing doubt that the legislation can be introduced before an election.
However, another of the Green Party demands, legislation for a directly elected mayor of Dublin, is included in the priority list of Bills expected to be published by the end of 2010. The Local Government (Dublin Mayor and Regional Authority) Bill was included in the priority list for the summer session but was not published. A Green Party spokesman in Government said that the Bill would be published this session.
He said it had been agreed politically and said the only obstacles facing it was the technical challenge of drafting the Bill.
Mr Curran said the 23 Bills in the programme were a “reflection of the broad policy and legislative progress that was ongoing under the Government”.
He said the legislative framework being developed was targeted at stabilising the economy. However, there is no major financial, banking or economic legislation in the list. Many of the Bills on the priority list are technical or uncontroversial.
They include a Forestry Bill, which will legislate for modernising the sector; a Bill to dissolve the Dormant Accounts Board; a Bill to outlaw female genital mutilation; and a road traffic Bill that will allow for mandatory testing of drivers in certain circumstances. Many of the other Bills transpose EU directives into Irish law.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said that if the programme followed the pattern of previous programmes, many of the priority Bills would remain unpublished at the end of the term.
“Labour will oppose several of the Bills. There does not seem to be anything there that will create huge political controversy,” said the spokesman.
Friends of the Earth expressed “deep disappointment” at the absence of another important Green Party policy, the Climate Change Bill, from the programme.
Its Irish director Oisín Coghlan said: “Last December the Government committed itself to having a climate law passed in 2010. Now, 10 months later, they can’t even say when it will be published.
“The climate law is a cornerstone of a sustainable, low-carbon economic recovery which will attract green investment and generate the kind of jobs what will last in the 21st century,” said Mr Coghlan.