Poll:Should foreign-donations to political-parties be banned?

arcadegame2004

I believe they should. SF are obviously using American money to fund their elections campaigns.

Foreigners should not interfere in our elections in this way.

Stabshauptmann

I would agree that foreigners should not be interfering with our internal affairs but who are the foreigners?
I dont consider the EU foreigners no more then i consider galway ppl foreigners.

This idea that irish americans are foreigners is repugnant. Irish americans have the same right to call themselves irish (and even more so in some cases) than many ppl living in Ireland (and of course there are many cases where the opposite is true).

Personally Im of the opinion that all political donations to parties should be banned and that everybody running for office should be given an election fund by the state which they cannot exceed, but thats just part of my own socialist beliefs.

arcadegame2004

Necromancer I agree with your last paragraph. It's a pity though that opinion-polls taken on this issue have indicated most people are opposed to state-funding of political-parties. But I feel that option is the lesser of the evils, and could help weed out corrupt payments, since politicians would no longer be able to escape punihsment by claiming donations are "legitimate political donations".

villain_97

Yes they should.We all know what party benefits most from them?Yes SF.The party that would create an economic wasteland

gandalf

Of course they should be banned but they better improve security in Post Offices before they do. The Chuckies will have to get funds from somewhere!

AngelofFire

Originally posted by arcadegame2004

Foreigners should not interfere in our elections in this way.

I agree elections are Purely an Irish Domestic matter.

ionapaul

I also agree with the above posters.

I personally don't think that Irish who have moved 'permanently' (I suppose this one is hard to judge) to another country should be entitled to/push for any representation in the Dail or Seanad, or be allowed fund any policial parties. I know there was a strong push a few years ago for the Irish-Americans to elect a Seanad member or two. This is ludicrous. I lived over there for over four years and it certainly would have been wrong for me to expect have any say in Irish politics or fund any political groupings during my time there. Much less Irish-Americans who have been there for 20+ years, want to vote in a Seanad member or two, and fund the parties they supported before leaving the country!

*obviously Irish military personnel stationed abroad and diplomatic staff and so on should be allowed to participate in the Irish democratic process as much as possible.

Cork

I hope that Irish America have copped on the IRA fund raising in the US after 9/11.

Fund raising by political partys outside the jusisticaion should be outlawed & the state should not give postal votes to people who are not resident within the state.

Lennoxschips

The state does not give postal votes to non-residents anyway. Most non-resident Irish citizens emigrated during the Haughey 80s, so I couldn't imagine FF giving us the vote anyway.

It's a situation that needs to be looked at however. I live in the Netherlands, and as a foreign citizen I am not entitled to vote here. I am also not entitled to vote in Irish elections as a non-resident. So I can't vote anywhere. Perhaps the EU should look into this for the new constitution.

AngelofFire

Cork wrote:

I hope that Irish America have copped on the IRA fund raising in the US after 9/11.

.

It will be hard to change that culture, nearly all political and social movements whether Militant or Consitutional in this country since 1860 have been funded by Irish America,Clann NaGaedhael,IRB,IRA,SinnFein,ICA,ITGWU,Fianna Fail 1926-1932 ,The Land League,The Irish Parliamentary Party,Cumann NaGaedhal(the umberella group between 1912 and 1916 not cosgraves party).

The Corinthian

Necromancer wrote:

This idea that irish americans are foreigners is repugnant. Irish americans have the same right to call themselves irish (and even more so in some cases) than many ppl living in Ireland (and of course there are many cases where the opposite is true).

Actually no. They’re foreigners. Citizens of a foreign State. Simple as that.

It is inadvisable to allow undue foreign influence that may have erroneous of conflicting aims. To begin with many descendants of emigrants will tend to have very romanticised view of the country as described to them over generations and that often they will never actually have visited. Secondly, there is a question of conflicted interests; ultimately those of the old country will always be rescinded to those of the adoptive nation.

So given such questionable aims and information it is hardly a good idea to allow someone who ultimately has the interests of a foreign country closest to heart and has limited knowledge of Ireland to have undue influence in our governance.

For Irish-Americans, I can appreciate that they hold the old country in affection, but they’re Americans, not Irish. Many have never set foot on Ireland and so have only second hand, often inaccurate, information to go on. And when you come down to it, who’s interests are going to be served primarily in their minds? Given a choice between Ireland’s and America’s, it will always be the latter. And who would blame them, they are after all American. Not Irish.