Have "Charities" Ever Spent So Much On A Referendum Before?

SafeSurfer

Sorry to start another referendum thread but all the brouhaha about the €1.1 million of public funds spent by the government in favour of a yes vote is insignificant compared to the combined spend of publicly funded charities campaigning for a yes vote.
(Google children's referendum and the sponsored links are mainly paid for by charities advocating yes).

Have charities, who receive funding from taxpayers who may be pro or anti referendum any role in spending taxpayers money campaigning for one side?

It would be simple for a government to bypass the spirit of the Mc Kenna judgement by increasing funding to charities which supported their preferred outcome in the run up to referenda in the future.

This may be innocuous enough in the case of the amendment currently being proposed, but it is an unfair advantage that state funding can still be legally used to influence the outcome of a referendum.

Victor

Not quite, a lot fo the money for the referendum is coming from private donors like Chuck Feeny and Declan Ryan.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Supreme Court Judges have stated that there's no need for such an amendment. To put something like this to the people is not right in my opinion. The majority who'll vote today are ignorant to what they're voting on.

What I want to see is the Seanad abolishment referendum brought forward coupled with a proposal to merge the Presidency with the office of Taoiseach. We are a small island nation in the North Atlantic, we need to stop our pretentious bullsh1t and cut down on the expensive trappings of political office.

miju

SafeSurfer wrote: »

(Google children's referendum and the sponsored links are mainly paid for by charities advocating yes).

Wouldnt use that as a barometer. Google give most charities up to $10,000 worth of advertising a year with them.

Though ads that are given under Google grants aren't supposed to be used for political purposes.

expectationlost

wait till er get our own koch brothers and we'll wonder why we didn't question the use of chuck feeney's money.