Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Bill
8:45 pm
Lord Goodhart (Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. Does he accept that there is a significant difference here; namely, that if there was a suspicion--perhaps a well-founded suspicion--that he was accepting donations in this country from supporters in the US, it would be possible for the authorities in this country to get the police to investigate such an allegation? The problem in the Republic of Ireland would be that the only authorities which could investigate such a matter would be the Garda and that might prove to be a less effective form of investigation.