Explainer: Why DUP’s Brexit funding has brought North’s donor secrecy into focus

Questions surrounding the funding of the DUP’s Brexit campaign has brought ending political donor secrecy in Northern Ireland into sharp focus.

The public desire for openness and transparency in politics appears to be at an all time high as allegations of cronyism and corruption swirl around Stormont scandals such as the “cash for cash”, the green energy scheme which is set to cost Stormont about £500 million (€592 million).

Donor secrecy has become an issue on the doors in the Assembly election campaign ahead of polling day on March 2nd.

During the conflict in the North, people making donations to political parties were allowed to remain anonymous because of the perceived security threat around their names being in the public domain.

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However the political and security context in Northern Ireland has changed significantly and there has been much debate among political parties on how to move forward.

The Alliance Party says it is time for full transparency. It and the Greens already publish donors voluntarily in line with UK legislation, including outside of election time.

When Alliance Party leader Naomi Long was an MP at Westminster she secured a commitment that anyone donating £7,500 (€8,885) or over, in a single payment to a local party since January 2014, will be revealed publicly when the Secretary of State lifts the exemption and brings Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK.

Next steps

In January Northern Secretary James Brokenshire wrote to Stormont parties on the next steps for the reform of the transparency of political donations and loans.

This came after earlier consultation and previous comments by Mr Brokenshire that progress should be made on the issue.

At the time he said voters would welcome “more information about how their political parties are funded”.

Following consultation in 2010, the UK government proposed amending the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 to provide for the Electoral Commission to publish information relating to Northern Ireland donations and loans without revealing the identities of donors or lenders.

This led to provisions in the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014.

The Northern Ireland Office is now seeking views from the political parties on whether the time is right to move to full transparency.

As the Alliance and Greens experience demonstrates, there is technically nothing stopping all parties from publishing donor names.

The largest four parties in the North - DUP, UUP, Sinn Féin and the SDLP - have said they are considering their position on the matter and while some sound keener than others to move to full transparency, it would appear they are not prepared to publish donor names until there is a commitment from each other that they will all do it.