“THERE IS NOTHING wrong with political parties having legitimate means of fundraising,” according to the Taoiseach. 

Micheál Martin today defended a Government amendment to a draft law that deals with party fundraising. 

The Labour Party criticised Housing Darragh O’Brien over the weekend about the amendment to the Electoral Reform bill that would allow political parties to run fundraising lotteries.

Fianna Fáil had previously been forced to call off a “super-draw” raffle, intended to raise €500,000, after declaring itself a charity to get a lottery licence.

According to the proposed amendment to the bill, political parties will be able to apply to the District Court for a licence to promote “periodical lotteries”.

A row between the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin broke out when the move was dubbed an “old fashioned stroke”.

Sinn Féin’s Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said the bill should be debated, stating that “the Taoiseach wants to barge it through”. 

“That is a stroke, but to see it come from the Taoiseach and see Fine Gael and Green Party Ministers go along with it says an awful lot,” he said.

“This is nothing but a good old Fianna Fáil political stroke. It is political reform Fianna Fáil style. It is disgraceful,” added Labour’s Ged Nash. 

“This is even more devious, because it seeks to introduce, at the eleventh hour, a new way for political parties to raise money. We know about the toxic influence of money on the political system. Our history has shown us that. By virtue of that alone, we need serious scrutiny of this measure in this House.

“We need a full plenary sitting of the Dáil to properly interrogate and ventilate the issues. We have 90 minutes to discuss 150 amendments,” said Nash. 

‘SF the wealthiest party in Ireland’ 

The Taoiseach hit out against the opposition members, stating that their comments were “deeply disingenuous”.

“Sinn Féin is the wealthiest party in Ireland with over 200 staff, 50 properties and a network of fundraising in the United States as well as an inheritance that would be illegal here in this Republic.

“With the greatest respect to the Deputy opposite, he has some neck to start lecturing other parties on fundraising. There is nothing wrong with political parties having legitimate means of fundraising.

“If that is by a raffle, there is nothing wrong with that. Providing for that in law, in my view, is the correct thing to do. It is transparent and open. Political parties should have legitimate avenues to raise money within the legal framework. That is simply what is going on here,” said Martin. 

“Sinn Féin has raised $15 million in the United States over the last number of years, $4 million of it inheritance,” said the Taoiseach. 

“All legal,” replied Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty. 

“God only knows what happened when Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA were one and the same thing. No one knows where the money went then or how it was translated. That is the bottom line,” said the Taoiseach. 

Martin added: “I really would love scrutiny and transparency in respect of all of that. When I come to Deputy Nash, his party has had alternative means of fundraising through a proportion of trade union subscriptions down through the years as well. Many of those trade union members were Fianna Fáil supporters and voters as well as anybody else.”

“Let us not pretend that this was some sort of stroke or whatever. It is not. We have some of the better legal frameworks governing political fundraising in this Republic,” said the Taoiseach.