The second point I would make, and I put it out there for your consideration is this. The public perception is that donations to politicians purchase some form of influence. But the Electoral Act has changed that. Spending at election times is now being tightly controlled. It will impact on all politicians and there have been and will continue to be teething problems with it.
Enforcement is the key also.
My party supports the work being done by the Public Offices Commission, the body charged with implementing the legislation, but it must be afforded the resources to monitor spending effectively during the course of the election. My own view however, is that we need to go further than the Electoral Act in our bid to remove the existing blemish from Irish politics. Many of you will be aware that my party published legislation last June to ban the corporate funding of politics. There are some people who take the view that the Electoral Act is in itself sufficient and that we don't need to go any further. It is not a view I support for two reasons.