Political Party Policy

The laws regulating political parties are still young and underdeveloped. Up to 2016 there weren't any laws regulating them and today the Electoral Commission is incapable of acting on certain provisions of the law. This needs changing.

• Decouple media outlets from political parties. Political party ownership of media outlets does not balance out, issues are generally not binary. 
  • Ensure the political parties work to publish their audited accounts within 2 years. 
    • Lack of cooperation would be penalised by fines on the party.
    • Parties may ask for a 2-year extension, once, if they have been cooperative throughout the process in regularising their audited accounts.
    • The decoupling can only commence once audited accounts are published.
  • Ensure decoupling involves separation of administration and finances.
  • Allow One and Net to continue operating, separate from the political parties, to ensure media plurality.
• All political party activities, businesses & social enterprises should be regulated by political party financing law.
  • Ensure all income a political party earns through its activities adheres to political party financing law to ensure a full picture of a party’s finances.
  • Reform Political Party Financing Law to ensure it can regulate political party activities, businesses & social enterprises.
  • Resolve the Constitutional issue of the Electoral Commission being investigator, prosecutor and judge of breeches in the law by creating separate bodies performing each role.
    • The Electoral Commission can't investigate cases since the laws put it in breach of the  Constitution and the European Convention, including the right to a fair hearing.
• Provide free auditing services for small parties with less than €5,000 in assets.