FG candidates must be transparent on funding

FINE Gael’s leadership contenders aren’t holding back with the spending on their campaigns.

In full ‘presidential election’ mode, spindoctors are being hired, policy documents published, posters printed, press events pitched and letters posted.

Although the electorate is only the 20,000 people who are members of the party, the candidates are leaving no stone unturned in their quest for the job. And all this costs money. Where is the funding coming from? Now it has emerged a prominent businessman who chairs the board of the Mater Hospital hosted a secret fundraising supper for Leo Varadkar this week

The frontrunner to be the next taoiseach has held a number of fundraising events in recent months, including one on Tuesday night at an exclusive private members’ club in Dublin city centre.

A select group of business people were invited to a ‘meet and greet’ with Mr Varadkar at the plush St Stephen’s Green Hibernian Club.

All above board, but there’s a bad smell off political fundraising in this country as a result of the activities of senior political figures in the 1980s and 1990s.

It is incumbent on both candidates – not just Mr Varadkar, but Simon Coveney too – to state how much they are spending on their campaigns and where the money is coming from to pay for it.