Declan Ganley now on RTE News at 1.

[mmclo]

Are you saying Libertas is using money put aside or raised before the campaign begins for use in the campaign?

Is there anything in the McKenna judgment that would prevent Libertas using money it received in advance?

It's not the McKenna judgement but ethics legislation and/or electoral acts afaik SIPO etc.

http://www.sipo.gov.ie/en/

[Trampas]

Maybe Libertas precedes them and therefore cash received before they came into force in their current form is not covered? Or maybe they genuinely have loads of donors.

and you agree with that?...apologies for been an inquisator on a discussion forum, you could always try letsallagree.ie

I agree with anything that is legal in terms of sources of finance.

Me too. But unfortunately the law is an ass.

[ibis]

Electoral Act, Electoral Act, Electoral Act, go read it before making accusations possibly-libellous about Libertas guys.

No-one is claiming that Libertas is engaged in any wrongdoing - we are asking whether the Electoral Act covers moneys given/earned/donated well before the campaign? The question applies to the government parties as well - can FF, say, use existing party funds in the referendum campaign, and how is that constrained? Sure, money has to be accounted for, but that does not mean it cannot be spent, or that it has to come only from donations given during the campaign.

[FutureTaoiseach]

Well anyway there is no reason to believe Libertas has not been above board.

[FutureTaoiseach]

Electoral Act, Electoral Act, Electoral Act, go read it before making possibly-libellous accusations about Libertas guys.

I wasn't accusing anyone just speculating about an organisation not a person. And I wasn't speculating that anything illegal happened.

[David Cochrane]

Ibis, go read it, it covers ALL donations for the purposes of influencing an election (or referendum) outcome, if you're too lazy to read the act (or read what I've said in the past) then that's your own issue. But I won't tolerate (with P.ie or Libertas hats on) any suggestion that the organisation is not above board.

Move along guys.

[mmclo]

Ibis, go read it, it covers ALL donations for the purposes of influencing an election (or referendum) outcome, if you're too lazy to read the act (or read what I've said in the past) then that's your own issue. But I won't tolerate (with P.ie or Libertas hats on) any suggestion that the organisation is not above board.

Move along guys.

Did you read Ibis's post David...FT suggeted a methodology and we are exploring it so back off

[mmclo]

Unfortunately there is no consolidated text of the Electoral Acts, so according to some they are unreadable and cannot be decided on

[FutureTaoiseach]

Ibis, go read it, it covers ALL donations for the purposes of influencing an election (or referendum) outcome, if you're too lazy to read the act (or read what I've said in the past) then that's your own issue. But I won't tolerate (with P.ie or Libertas hats on) any suggestion that the organisation is not above board.

Move along guys.

Did you read Ibis's post David...FT suggeted a methodology and we are exploring it so back off

I didn't suggest it was illegal because I haven't a clue. And I also suggested that it could just be they have lots of donors.

[David Cochrane]

I'll back off when you go read the Electoral Acts.