The former Fine Gael leader Garret Fitzgerald has called for an urgent end to the funding of political parties by big business.

It follows weekend reports, that the party which he formally led – held a high profile golf classic last week – attended by bank bosses and NAMA developers.

In the opening speech of the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Garret Fitzgerald said the risk of political corruption must be removed by stopping politicans from being funded by business.

He also hit out at what he said was the tolerance of tax evasion and corruption particularly in rural Ireland.

He said voter support for former Fine Gael Minister Michael Lowry shows that tax evasion is tolerated by rural people.