The Fianna Fail party failed yesterday to support a proposal for a ban on all business donations to political parties.
The proposal, which also called for full State funding of political parties, was put by the Laois-Offaly TD and former Fianna Fail financial director, Mr Sean Fleming, to the weekly meeting of the ail parliamentary party.
However, after a lengthy debate the Taoiseach intervened to recommend that the motion be referred to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, for possible consideration in future legislation.
Mr Fleming's motion called for a ban on all corporate and business donations to political parties and election candidates and for the introduction of full State funding for political parties.
The motion also called for a "sensible" system of disclosure of expenditure by political parties.
A total of 13 parliamentary party members spoke on the motion yesterday. The majority of the speakers spoke against various elements of the motion.
Most of those opposed said that there was disclosure already in existence under current legislation and that the party had recently agreed a code of ethics. Many expressed the view that businesses doing well due to Fianna Fail policy should contribute something back to politics.
It was also suggested that taxpayers would not be happy if they had to fund political parties fully.
Mr Fleming told the meeting the financial links between politics and business had given politics a bad name and a significant aspect of every tribunal in the last few years has involved tracing financial contributions from business to politicians.
He pointed out that at the moment the State funded political parties to the tune of £3 million a year. He said that it would take an additional £5 million to fund all political parties adequately, thereby cutting out the need for business donations.
Mr Fleming told The Irish Times afterwards that he believed full State funding of political parties would ultimately happen. He said he would wait and see what happened now that his motion had been referred to Mr McCreevy and Mr Dempsey.