US group denies Sipo claims that funding for abortion campaign was political

The US foundation which awarded funding to Amnesty Ireland for its campaign against Ireland’s abortion laws has taken issue with the State ethics watchdog’s claims that it had said the money was for “political purposes”.

Open Society Foundations (OSF) said it has written to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) calling on it to correct the record on the matter.

Amnesty Ireland recently revealed that Sipo had ordered it to return a €137,000 grant the human rights group had received from the George Soros-backed OSF.