New fundraising rules for Irish parties announced
Howard Lake | 30 January 2006 | News
Northern Ireland’s political parties will still be able to raise funding abroad but not receive donations under new electoral rules to be introduced next year. Parties can receive individual donations of more than £5,000 from people in the UK or the Republic but in future this has to be declared to the Electoral Commission.
The donor details will be kept confidential for security reasons and only UK nationals and Irish citizens will be entitled to donate.
These new rules come into operation from October 2007 and will certainly have an impact on any political party which currently receives large donations from the United States.
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However, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has confirmed to The Irish News that these new rules only apply to donations and not fundraising.
Therefore if for example politicians from the north speak at fundraisers in the US their parties can still receive that funding. Sinn Féin, the SDLP and, in more recent years the Ulster Unionists, all fundraise in the the United States. Sinn Fein has a particularly strong fundraising operation in the United States.
NIO minister with responsibility for political development David Hanson said the government was clear that there needs to be more effective regulation of donations to political parties operating in the north to bring arrangements into line with Britain.
He said they also recognised the need to take account of the legitimate concerns that have been expressed about the potential risk of intimidation of donors and to ensure that “the special place of Ireland in the political life of Northern Ireland is respected”.
“We are therefore planning for legislation that will require political parties to notify the Electoral Commission of donations over £5,000 but provide for donor details to be kept confidential. UK nationals on the electoral register and Irish citizens will be entitled to donate,” he said.
“This will take effect in October 2007. The legislation will also provide for an opportunity to move to full transparency in October 2010 if the circumstances allow.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.