Fine Gael top of donations table

€83k to party more than half total given by benefactors

IRISH political parties received donations of €156,699 last year with Fine Gael accounting for more than half of the total.

In its annual report, the Standards in Public Office Commission revealed there were 19 parties registered to contest Dail or European elections.

As of the March 31 deadline, just 12 had complied fully with the statutory requirements.

With €82,713, Fine Gael received the most followed by the €47,463 received by Sinn Fein.

Labour took €21,750 in donations and Workers and Unemployed Action got €4,800. The Socialist Party de-registered from the Register of Political Parties on June 27 last year and was therefore only required to submit a statement up to that date.

Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes had party’s highest donation with €2,317.

Labour’s Robert Dowds and Sinn Fein’s Martin Ferris and Mary Lou Mcdonald all received €2,500. Workers and Unemployed Action, Councillor Pat English and Independent TD Seamus Healy both received €2,500. The most a party can accept from the same donor in the same year is €2,500.

An accounting unit is a branch of a party which receives a donation in excess of €100 in any year.

An accounting unit must keep a receipt of any donation in excess of €100 and must open and maintain a political donations account in a financial institution in the State.

By each March, they must provide the Commission a statement from the financial institution in which the account is held and certificate of monetary donations.