Louth TD accuses Donohoe of "selling us a narrative that suits his own ends”

Louth TD Ged Nash has accused the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe of “selling us a narrative that suits his own ends.”

The Labour party TD was speaking in the Dail following the Minister’s address to the house in which he sought to clarify the ongoing controversy around his declaration of election expenses and the erection/removal of posters during the 2016 General Election by a named company. 

Deputy Nash asked the Minister: 

“Is it not a fact that there has been a breach of both the donation and expenditure rules that everyone in this House is bound by?”

Further stating that

“The SIPO guidelines point out that it is an offence for a candidate or anybody else, including, for example, "a local branch of a political party", to incur expenses or make payments in connection with a candidate's campaign if this was not authorised by the agent.” 

And asking: 

“Was this unauthorised expenditure incurred during the Minister's 2016 election campaign and, if so, will the Minister notify SIPO of this breach of the Act?”

Deputy Nash went on to claim that it was significant that the service of putting up and taking down election posters was provided by the company owner because the law imposes a lower legal limit on corporate donations than on donations from individuals.

He also asked the Minister to clarify how many posters were erected/ taken down by the company in question as the usual cost was five euro per poster and that any difference between the usual price of a service and how much the service was actually provided for, counts, under election regulations, as a political donation.

Deputy Nash went on to claim that:

“The long and the short of it, as far as donations are concerned, is that the Minister ended up as the recipient of a free service, which was a political donation. 

“As far as expenditure is concerned, expenditure was incurred by a third party which was not authorised by the Minister's agent. 

“These are the facts. I am pleased that the Minister has recused himself from having responsibility for the development of long-awaited ethics legislation, which the Labour Party has been campaigning for for eight long years.”