Fianna Fáil ran €1m deficit, new records show

Fine Gael and Sinn Féin both ran a surplus, according to the new records released by SIPO for the year 2020

Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis: The party suffered cuts to income in its state funding having lost TDs in the 2020 election and in fundraising as the pandemic hit.

Fianna Fáil ran a deficit of €1m in 2020 as the largest-spending party in the state, new figures show.

Ethics watchdog the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) has published its annual report on statements of accounts provided to it by political parties. They show that for the election year, Fianna Fáil spent €6.7m and had a deficit of just over €1m, despite cutting costs. The party had reported a deficit of over €700,000 for 2019.

The party suffered cuts to income in its state funding having lost TDs in the 2020 election and in fundraising as the pandemic hit.

Fine Gael's accounts show a surplus of €339,000, having spent €5.46m and brought in €5.8m, including €4.3m in State funding. Leo Varadkar’s party reported fundraising income of over €1m.

Sinn Féin’s accounts, which only cover its operations in the 26 counties, show a surplus of nearly €1m on the back of €4.1m in spending and €5.1m in income, €4.7m of that in state funding. The party shows accumulated reserves of €3.5m.

The Green Party received €1,239,233 in state support and an overall income of €1,046,546. The party reported a surplus of €89,581.

The Labour Party reported an overall income of €1,656,501 with €1,520,831 from in state supports. Its recorded deficit for the year was €275,564.

Five registered parties have not furnished statements of accounts to the commission and are not compliant with the requirements of the Acts. They are Identity Ireland, The National Party, Irish Democratic Party, Renua Ireland, and The Workers’ Party.

SIPO said that Renua Ireland provided its statement of accounts for 2019 on 18 August, 2021.

The Commission said that while Renua had provided its 2019 statement of accounts it is “very concerned” that, as a party that was in receipt of public monies in 2020, Renua has "failed to meet their statutory obligations to provide a statement of accounts for 2020 to the commission”.

“Apart from the lateness of their submission, the accounts are compliant”, it said, and that as Renua no longer receives state funding because of its 2020 general election performance, it can have no action taken against it.

Sipo recommended that the requirement for audited accounts be removed from those parties which don’t receive state funding.

“[T]he commission is of the view that the requirement on all registered political parties to furnish statements of accounts and to have them audited by a statutory auditor, regardless of the size of the party or the extent of its income and expenditure, is excessive. The commission recommends that the legislation be reviewed with a view to exempting smaller parties from the requirement to furnish audited statements to the commission."