FF spent €3.65m from war chest on general election

FIANNA Fáil spent a staggering €3.65 million, or €4.25 on each and every one of the 858,600 votes it got, in general election 2007, a report from the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) shows.

But how FF’s massive war chest was funded and by whom largely remains a mystery.

The disclosed donations of each of the main parties amounts to only a fraction of their multi-million-euro election splurges, leading to suspicions that parties are encouraging huge volumes of small donations in order to avoid disclosure and transparency.

In 2006, for example, Fianna Fáil disclosed donations of only €140,000. It suggests that parties encourage thousands of smaller donations under the limit.

It has led to a ludicrous situation where neither the total amount for the Fine Gael raffle (reported to have raised more than €1m) nor the well-known fundraiser each year in Clontarf Castle for Bertie Ahern’s St Luke’s operation have to be declared to the Standards Commission.

The commission itself yesterday strongly criticised the narrow “election period” that applies to all expenses incurred and payment made. The strict spending rules only apply from the moment the Dáil is dissolved until polling days, but doesn’t take into account the substantial spending made by parties before the election is called.

“SIPO is in no doubt that the lack of an effective election period… undermines the purpose of having expenditure limits in place and runs the risk of bringing the act into disrepute.

“There is the danger that if the issue of the election period at Dáil and European elections is not satisfactorily addressed the accounting for expenditure at such elections will be perceived as little more than a paper exercise,” the report states.

Of the other big parties, Fine Gael spent €2.8m and the Labour Party €1.4m. The PDs, despite its relatively modest size, spent a staggering €1.01million — but its large spending did the party little good.

In contrast, the other two smaller parties had more modest spending — Sinn Féin spent a total of €685,095 while the Green Party spent slightly over €550,000.

The report on election expenditure shows that none of the hundreds of Dáil candidates exceeded the statutory expenditure limits of €45,200 a candidate for a five-seater; €37,650 for a four-seater; and €30,150 for a three-seater.

Yesterday’s report also included details of donations received by unsuccessful candidates (donation details for the 166 TDs will be published in the spring).

The unsuccessful candidate with the highest donation was barrister Jim O’Callaghan, who stood for FF in Dublin South East. His donations amounted to 38,250, raised mainly from colleagues at the Law library. Two Wicklow candidates featured in the top three: Pat Fitzgerald (FF) who declared donations of €32,820; and Nicky Kelly (Lab) who received donations totalling €24,217. Two other unsuccessful barristers, Eugene Regan (FG, Dun Laoghaire) and Alex White (Lab) Dublin South also featured in the top 10.