The Labour Party has criticised Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien over an 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.
Changes to gambling laws mean only “charities and philanthropic causes” can get a licence to run a lottery. A licence granted to Fianna Fáil was legally challenged last Christmas, resulting in the party cancelling the fundraiser and refunding money.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the time defended the party’s use of a licence to carry out the draw, saying it was working “within the legal framework”.
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According to the proposed amendment to the electoral reform bill, put forward by the Minister, political parties will be able to apply to the District Court for a licence to promote “periodical lotteries”.
There is no reference to how much money can be raised through these lotteries, but there is a prize cap of no more than €360,000 per year.
In a statement on Saturday, Ged Nash, the Labour Party’s finance spokesman, described the amendment as “an old style Fianna Fáil stroke”.
“After discovering they could no longer legally run their €500,000 annual raffle the Fianna Fáil Minister for Housing has tabled a last-minute amendment to the Electoral Reform Bill that would allow them to keep the money rolling in,” he said.
“The Minister’s proposal would allow political parties to get a licence from the District Court for lotteries with cash prizes of up €360,000, but there’s been no debate or scrutiny of his plan.”
He added: “This is a classic old-fashioned FF stroke, as at no point was this change to the law flagged or scrutinised at committee stage two weeks ago.”
Mr Nash said it was a “bad day for transparency” and called on the minister to withdraw the change “that is far outside the scope of the original bill”.
The amendment is scheduled for debate on Wednesday.
The Electoral Reform Bill is primarily about introducing an Electoral Commission, which will be in charge of overseeing elections.
The Electoral Reform Bill 2022 envisages the Electoral Commission having the power to investigate online claims that amount to disinformation at election times.
Under the proposed legislation, social media giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will be forced to take down misleading information at election time.
In a statement on the proposed amendments of the bill on Friday, Mr O’Brien said: “With the proposed new functions assigned to the Electoral Commission, I firmly believe that our democracy will be in a much better position to combat the potential threats to the integrity of its elections as a result of these amendments.”
