McDowell’s proposals on ethics reform are merely window dressing
Statement by John Gormley TD, Green Party Chairman
“It is welcome that, at long last, the debate on Bertiegate is now beginning to address the inadequacy of Irish ethics legislation. However, the legislative changes being sought by the Tánaiste amount to nothing more than window dressing. It confirms that his discussions with the Taoiseach are really focusing on how best they can ’spin’ their way out of this crisis.
“If the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste were serious about new ethics legislation they would accept the proposals put forward by the Green Party to ban corporate donations, restrict spending – not just at election time but between elections – and to severely restrict personal donations and advertising.
“The argument often used by Michael McDowell that he opposes the public funding of political parties does not stand up. We already have the public funding of parties supplemented hugely by private and corporate donations. This hybrid system is really the worst of both worlds. Both Fianna Fáil and the PDs benefit enormously from the current system and are unlikely to want to change it fundamentally. As long as it exists, however, the political system will suffer conflicts of interest and corruption.”
October 9th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
[...] It looks like the PDs and FF will patch things up. Michael Mc, I’m afraid, has cried wolf too many times now. He’ll probably try to salvage a shred of credibility by getting some form of new ethics legislation passed. You can see my thoughts on this in the press release I did this morning. [...]