Paschal Donohoe identifies fresh issues with his 2020 election spend

Amid the tumult over his 2016 declarations, sources say the minister has identified an issue about the most recent election

A spokesperson for Paschal Donohoe said the minister would make a statement 'in due course' but sources say he has discovered an issue in his 2020 election spending. File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe has unearthed fresh issues with his 2020 general election expenses.

It came after a tumultuous week for Mr Donohoe over his 2016 declarations, having to apologise after he failed to declare a payment of €1,057 made to workers who put up his election posters in 2016.

Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has claimed Mr Donhoe’s explanation “lies in tatters,” and is demanding to know whether businessman Michael Stone paid for the Fine Gael TD’s election posters to be erected in 2020.

According to sources, it has now emerged that Mr Donohoe has identified an issue regarding his expenses during the most recent general election having reviewed material.

A spokesperson for Mr Donohoe said the minister would make a statement “in due course". 

It’s understood Mr Donohoe had not updated party leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Friday night.

It places extra heat on the Government who had hoped the controversy would be put to bed by Mr Donohoe on Tuesday when he was due to make another statement and take questions from Opposition TDs.

The minister has maintained the 2016 donation was to the Fine Gael organisation in his constituency and not himself and was therefore within donation rules.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has denied the controversy is distracting from the Government’s work but Coalition TDs told the Irish Examiner that the fiasco has damaged the Government.

The fear among government TDs, including ministers, is what exactly Mr Donohoe has to further disclose and if it could potentially lead to his resignation.

A number of senior TDs have said if that is the case, they would envisage a general election being called. One said:

If Paschal goes down, we all go down. 

One Fianna Fáil TD was critical of Mr Donohoe’s handling of the matter and said the Public Expenditure Minister caused himself damage by waiting a number of days to make another statement.

The TD said the Dáil had been allowed to “turn into a circus” over the issue and Sipo had to be allowed to do its job in investigating the matter.

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“He didn’t fill out the forms right, left himself open, handled it badly, then the businessman was appointed to two different state boards, then there’s a pile of raffle tickets bought and it just smacks of cronyism,” a Fianna Fáil TD said.

One Fine Gael member said the party is fully behind Mr Donohoe on the issue and does not see it as a resigning matter: 

I expect himself and Pearse [Doherty] to puck the shit out of each other, but I don’t think he is in danger. 

“Sacking or scot free, that’s the only option nowadays,” said one Fianna Fáil TD. "That shouldn’t be the case. 

"I expect he wanted it to go to a Sipo investigation because it gave more time and space for him to find out what happened."

“There has to be some gradient associated with misdemeanors and for them to be measured and appropriate thereafter. Whether it’s the form of a suspension or a fine.”

One minister said Mr Donohoe is a man they would deem has “the highest level of integrity,” and it is “dangerous territory” for his reputation if he does not address the matter fully soon.