Public funding of parties: The amount of State funding being provided for the working of the political system has risen rapidly over the past 10 years. Last year the political parties received €12 million in direct subvention from the taxpayer to fund their activities.
This came on top of the €106 million that it cost to pay the salaries of politicians, their secretaries and parliamentary assistants, and to run the two Houses of the Oireachtas.
The money paid directly to the political parties falls under two headings. First there is the parliamentary leaders' allowance. This payment has been around since the 1930s and in the past was spent almost entirely at the discretion of the party leader. It was famously used by Charles Haughey to buy Charvet shirts. Since that disclosure at the Moriarty tribunal, a more transparent system of accounting for the money has come into being. Last year a total of €6.8 million was disbursed under the leaders' allowance.
All the Dáil parties, including the Socialists, who have just one TD, received money under this heading. Each party receives €63,215 per Dáil member for the first 10 TDs, €50,571 for each of the 11 to 30 members, and €25,293 for every TD it has in the 30-plus category. Non-party TDs get an allowance of €36,374 each.
In tandem with the leaders' allowance, a parallel system of funding for qualified parties was introduced under the 1997 Electoral Act. Qualified political parties are defined as registered parties who received 2 per cent or more of the national vote at the most recent Dáil election. Six parties qualify under this heading: Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, the PDs, the Green Party and Sinn Féin.
Each receives a minimum payment of €126,973, which is then topped up on the basis of the number of votes achieved by each party in the last election. The total paid under this heading last year came to just over €5 million.
When the two systems are taken together, Fianna Fáil had more than €6 million available to spend on party activities last year. A balance of almost €1 million was retained for expenditure this year.
The parties are obliged to disclose how they spend the money and while the categories appear to be flexible they give some indication of the priorities of the various parties and their preparations to fight the next election.
The biggest item of expenditure incurred by Fianna Fáil was general administration, which came to almost €4 million. The next biggest item was polling or public attitude sampling in connection with parliamentary debates or activities. While direct spending on electioneering with taxpayers' money is not allowed, the polling and research conducted by the party was important in gauging the attitude of voters on issues.
Other big items on the Fianna Fáil shopping list were consultancy service and policy formulation. The last major item, at almost €200,000, was the provision or recoupment of transport and personal expenses incurred by the party leader or party spokesmen as a result of their parliamentary functions.
Fianna Fáil spent nothing at all under the headings of research, education and training, policy formulation, the promotion of women or the promotion of young people.
All the other parties with the exception of the PDs spent money under these headings.
Fine Gael had a total of €3.2 million from State funds available for spending last year. The party spent more than €1 million on administration and more than €500,000 on the co-ordination of party branch activities.
This was five times what Fianna Fáil spent on its branches and organisation network. Nearly €1 million of the funds allocated to Fine Gael went in support services for the parliamentary party, an item on which Fianna Fáil spent nothing. Fine Gael spent €71,620 on the promotion of participation by young people and €36,563 on women.
Labour had a total of about €2 million to spend last year and its priorities were broadly the same as Fine Gael, with administration taking up the biggest slice of the available funding.
One major item of spending by Labour which was not incurred by the other big parties was the provision of technical or specialist services in connection with legislative proposals or parliamentary initiatives, which came to €217,328. Consultancy services and branch activities were also substantial items for the party.
Sinn Féin had a total of just over €770,000, the Greens had €1.2 million and the PDs €1.3 million available for spending in 2005. Sinn Féin did not carry forward a large amount from the previous year but the other two parties did.
General administration topped the list of spending for Sinn Féin and the PDs but the Greens spent more on the provision of services for the parliamentary party.
Sinn Féin spent proportionately more than any other party on co-ordinating the activities of branches and members.
