This article is from page 2 of the 2014-01-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE traditional Fianna Fáil church gate collection could soon be a thing of the past with a proposal to ban the collection to be discussed at the next meeting of the party’s Financial Committee.
Over the last number of years grass roots members in Clare have contributed more through the church gate collection than members in any other county in Ireland. Indeed the party netted in excess of € 17,000 from church gate collections in Clare in 2012, compared to just € 20 collected in Dublin and € 185,000 collected in Ireland as a whole.
Church gate collections have become a divisive subject in the Fianna Fáil party in recent years with urban members viewing them as old fashioned and outdated while members from more rural constituencies view them as a good source of revenue.
A Fianna Fáil spokesperson confirmed to The Clare People yesterday that the party’s high brass would examine scrapping the collection in the coming weeks.
“The matter hasn’t yet been referred to the Finance Committee. The committee meets every quarter and it will come up at the next meeting of the committee,” he said yesterday.
The spokesperson also described the proposal to ban church gate col- lections as a complex issue and declined to give a figure for the total raised by the party in Clare in 2013.
County Clare contributed almost 10 per cent of the total raised by Fianna Fáil from church gate collections in 2012.
This was an increase on the € 16, 536 raised by the party in 2011, but represent a significant drop on the amount raised in Clare while the party was still in government.
Clare has been a consistent cashcow for Fianna Fáil with € 21,727 being raised in 2010 and € 23,594 in 2009.
A complete ban on all church gate collections in Clare received cross party support when it was suggested by Ennis Cllr Tony Mulqueen (FG) late last year.
“All of the main political parties are now funded by the State. If the State is contributing millions towards the operations of political parties, I don’t see why they need to hold collections in front of churches anymore,” said Cllr Mulqueen.
“We seem to have an industry in collecting money in this country. As it stands at the moment, political parties receive State funding based on the number of seats that they win in elections.
“It seems a fair system and I received support from all parties when I suggested a ban on collections – including Fianna Fáil.” TODAY Th a n kfu lly a d ry day, su n n y b u t bre e zy a n d c h illy, ta m ps 7c .