Cowen: ‘Don’t hound Donohoe out of office’

FORMER minister Barry Cowen has insisted Paschal Donohoe should not be ‘hounded’ from office over the controversy linked to his election campaign expenses.

The Fianna Fáil TD was sacked as agriculture minister in 2020, after refusing to take Dáil questions about a historical drink-driving incident.

Mr Cowen has now backed Mr Donohoe as pressure continues to mount on the Public Expenditure Minister over financial support received from a donor ahead of the 2016 general election.

Mr Donohoe, who is president of the influential Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, is to make another statement about the expenses controversy to the Dáil on Tuesday.

In an earlier Dáil statement on Wednesday last, the Fine Gael TD apologised over issues related to non-declarations of expenditure.

He declined to answer questions from TDs on that occasion, citing an ongoing examination of the issues by the ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).

In 2020, Mr Cowen was sacked by his party leader, thenTaoiseach Micheál Martin, after he refused to take Dáil questions

‘No way should he be hounded out’

on a drink-driving charge, insisting he was entitled to due process in relation to an investigation by the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

While Mr Donohoe is now due to take questions following his statement in the Dáil, the events of this week have prompted comparisons with Mr Cowen’s case.

Mr Cowen told RTÉ Radio 1 that Mr Donohoe does not deserve to be sacked.

‘For this offence, no way should he be hounded out of office. I’m not getting calls to my constituency office, nor anyone else, about who paid for €140 for a van to put posters up two elections ago,’ he said.

Last weekend, it emerged Mr Donohoe had not declared a payment, made by businessman Michael Stone, for six people to hang up election posters ahead of the 2016 general election, with the work done valued at €917.

He said he was not aware before a full review in December, following a recent complaint to Sipo, that the workers had been paid in a ‘personal payment’ by Mr Stone. The minister, left, also admitted he should have amended his election expenses in 2017 after he became aware that a corporate van had been used to hang the posters, which he estimated to be worth €140.