Opposition seeks Dáil grilling for Donohoe

Opposition parties and independent TDs have written to the Ceann Comhairle to formally ask him to bring Paschal Donohoe before the Dáil.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe apologises for an error he made in not declaring services provided to him during the 2016 general election campaign. Picture: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA Wire

Opposition parties have officially requested that Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe face questions in the Dáil.

Mr Donohoe has been asked by the Opposition to explain his failure to properly account for a commercial vehicle's use, valued at €140, and the labour of six men involved in putting up posters, valued at €917, all donated by businessman Michael Stone.

A complaint made to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) claims that the value of the services is closer to €10,000, the Irish Examiner understands.

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The row over Mr Donohoe's expenses continued on Tuesday as Opposition parties and independent TDs have written to the Ceann Comhairle to formally ask him to bring Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe before the Dáil.

Mr Donohoe has been under pressure to address the Dáil over the donation of services by a Dublin businessman to his 2016 general election campaign.

The letter — signed by the party whips from Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, the Social Democrats, the Rural Independents, PBP/Solidarity, and the Independent Group — asks that Mr Donohoe comes before the Dáil "at the earliest opportunity".

At a hastily convened press conference on Sunday, Mr Donohoe confirmed that six men and two vehicles had been made available to his campaign for the erection and taking down of his posters in the Dublin Central constituency.

War of words

The letter from the whips was the latest move in a war of words about Mr Donohoe's amended statement. His party colleague, the minister of State for European affairs Peter Burke, hit out at Sinn Féin as being "hypocritical" after it emerged today that the Opposition party failed to declare a €7,000 payment to a British polling company for work carried out in the last general election.

Last year, the party made amended returns to Sipo to include the payment.

Mr Burke said: “Sinn Féin originally made an inaccurate return and failed to include a poll, carried out by a London-based company, and tweeted by Deputy Eoin Ó Bróin in the closing stages of the February 2020 election. It cost €7,000. How can you forget a sum like that?

If the return was being done in a normal professional environment, Sinn Féin would be reviewing money spent from their bank accounts during the electoral period and reconciling the statements.

“I don’t buy this horrendous excuse given today that remote working during the pandemic caused it. That’s rubbish. Who brought the error to the attention of Sinn Féin? Did they get a media query on it?"

A Sinn Féin spokesperson hit back, saying that Fine Gael was trying to "distract" from Mr Donohoe's expenses.

"This was an administrative error caused by remote working that was corrected as soon as it came to our attention," the spokesperson said. "The value of the invoice was €6,936.42. The amended expenditure return was accepted by Sipo.

Fine Gael are desperately trying to distract from the failure of Minister Paschal Donohoe to answer questions about a political donation to him; the explanation which — thus far — stretches all bounds of credibility."

Sinn Féin's Public Expenditure spokesperson Mairéad Farrell said that pictures published by the Irish Independent showing the erection of the posters "blow a hole" in Mr Donohoe's explanations.