Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2002

Amendment of Electoral Act, 1997.

4.—The Electoral Act, 1997 , is amended—

(a) in section 22(2)(a) by deleting in subparagraph (v) “the commercial price, or” and substituting “the commercial price,” and by substituting the following for subparagraph (vi):

“(vi) in the case of a contribution made by a person in connection with an event organised for the purpose of raising funds for a member of either House of the Oireachtas, a representative in the European Parliament or a third party or a candidate at a Dáil, Seanad or European election, the proportion attributable to that contribution of the net profit, if any, deriving from the event, or

(vii) in the case of a contribution made by a person in connection with an event organised for the purpose of raising funds for a political party, the proportion attributable to that contribution of the net profit, if any, that is derived from the event and that, although not specifically raised for the purpose of supporting one or more of the political party's candidates at a Dáil, Seanad or European election, is used for the latter purpose;”,

(b) in section 22(2)(b) by substituting the following subparagraph for subparagraph (vi):

“(vi) expenses incurred by a political party on behalf of a candidate authenticated by the political party at a Dáil or European election, member of either House of the Oireachtas or representative in the European Parliament, other than a donation of money.”,

(c) by inserting the following in section 25 after subsection (2):

“(2A) It shall be a defence to a prosecution of—

(a) the appropriate officer of a political party or the person deemed to have been appointed as the appropriate officer under section 71, or

(b) the responsible person of a third party or of an accounting unit,

for an offence under subsection (1)(a) or (b) that he or she did not know and could not reasonably have known of the receipt of a donation acceptance of which is prohibited by section 23 or 23A or a donation the value of which exceeds the relevant amount specified in section 24(4).”, and

(d) by substituting the following for subparagraph (d) of paragraph 2 of the Schedule (inserted by the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001 ):

“(d) necessary travelling expenses incurred by a candidate or an assentor in meeting the requirements of section 46(4A) and (4B) of the Act of 1992 and section 12(1A) and (1B) of the Act of 1997,”.