Tánaiste defends Burton’s meeting with media tycoon Denis O’Brien

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has defended his deputy leader Joan Burton’s encounter with media tycoon Denis O’Brien and suggested public representatives could not go around “covered in a cloak” when meeting people.

The Labour leader was responding to revelations about ministerial meetings and further fallout from the Moriarty Tribunal and said the situation was getting “ridiculous”.

The Irish Examiner revealed this week that Ms Burton had a brief encounter with Mr O’Brien in the New York Stock Exchange in March. She later suggested that Government figures should not interact with individuals criticised in the Moriarty report. But Mr Gilmore said that ministers could not control who they encountered.

“This is getting ridiculous. You can’t control who is going to be in a photograph, you can’t control who you bump into in a corridor.

“This idea that somehow that we can go around every day operating some kind of a system that we have to cross the street if we see this one coming or that one… that’s not real life.”

He also defended the right of ministers to meet elected representatives following revelations in this newspaper that Environment Minister Phil Hogan met TD Michael Lowry, also criticised by Moriarty, just days after the inquiry’s release.

“On the issue of whom meets whom, people are elected to Dáil Éireann irrespective of the fact that we like the fact that they’ve been elected or not. And they clearly have access to ministers and can raise issues either publicly or directly with ministers.

Mr Hogan, in his first response to the revelation of the meeting, yesterday said in Carlow: “I met Deputy Lowry in relation to a constituency matter and officials were present and I have complied fully with the code of conduct of ministers and the ministerial handbook in relation to any such meeting. I don’t think it is the media’s decision ultimately to make any decision about who a minister should meet.”

Revenue rises with electoral gains

Labour’s revenue income jumped by almost half to €3.4m in 2011 during a general election year that saw the party’s number of TDs almost double.

The party’s accounts for the year, released yesterday, show, however, that it had a surplus of just €325,000 at the end of the year after expenditure.

Overall, Labour raised nearly €300,000 through subscriptions and membership collections but spent over €1m on staff salaries and pensions, the accounts show.

Income rose significantly in some areas, including through its increased number of voters, which saw electoral funds for the party, provided by the State, almost double to €1.1m.

It built on its party leader allowance after this, which amounted to €1.6m by the end of the year and again reflected the increased number of elected representatives. Donations for that year also more than quadrupled, rising to €174,596.

The party also blew nearly €1m in its electoral fund for last year’s February general election, the figures show.

But this paid off and saw the party increase its number of TDs from 20 to 37.

The accounts also show that, by 2010, the value of the party’s headquarters in Ely Place in Dublin had fallen dramatically from over €2m to €700,000.

During that year, the accounts also show that €100,000 was set aside for legal bills in a dispute over pensions for retired party workers. However, the dispute never reached court and the funds were not used the following year.