Greens insist TD donations did not exceed legal limits

THE Green Party last night insisted no laws had been broken when its TDs donated money to the party, but appeared to contradict its leader, John Gormley, when explaining itself.

The party said none of its TDs had exceeded the donation limits set down by the Electoral Act.

But speaking on Tuesday on Today FM’s Last Word radio programme, Mr Gormley said each of the Green TDs gave a fifth of their salaries to the party — sums which would far exceed the donation limits.

Asked how much they donated, Mr Gormley replied: “We give 20% and, in fact, that has always been the case.”

But if Mr Gormley or any other TD had given 20% of his salary directly to the party in any of the last 10 years, they would have been breaking the law.

The act, enacted in May 1997, limits to €6,348.69 the maximum amount which a single donor can give to a party in any one year.

Analysis of TDs’ salaries since 1997 shows that, in any of the years since, Mr Gormley would have contravened the act had he donated 20% of his pay directly to the Green Party.

Last year, for instance, when Mr Gormley was in opposition, he would have earned more than €90,000 in basic salary.

A donation of 20% of this would have amounted to more than €18,000.

However, in the disclosure statements provided to the Standards in Public Office Commission, which monitors the Electoral Act, the party said Mr Gormley had donated only €5,100.

And yesterday, a party spokesman insisted Mr Gormley had not given 20% of his salary to the party in recent years — contrary to what the minister himself had said a day earlier.