The Progressive Democrats are not insolvent and not in a financial mess, according to the party's joint treasurer, who said that overall debt had dropped by £103,000 in the past year, to £305,000.
Mr Paul Mackay told the conference in Galway that a Garda investigation was under way into the leaking to the media of bank documents which named 25 of the party's financial guarantors.
He expressed anger at the report in a Sunday newspaper which also stated that the party finances were not in "good order". And he was annoyed that "the confidentiality between a banker and his client should be breached. Certain documents came from the records of National Irish Bank."
Mr Mackay was not sure if the documents were leaked from the bank but the gardai were investigating them.
Afterwards he showed reporters a letter which had been written by the bank's chief operating officer, Mr Philip Halpin, to each of the guarantors, expressing regret that their names had been published.
Mr Halpin stated that the bank was investigating the matter and that the gardai had been requested to investigate the leak.
Giving a frank statement to delegates of the PDs' situation, Mr Mackay said the finances were in "reasonably good order" and he said they complied with accounting standards not adhered to by the other political parties.
The PDs' overall debt had been reduced from £408,000 by £103,000.
Establishing and developing the party over the past 14 years had cost some £295,000 and the 1997 general election campaign cost the party £286,000, he said.
Day-to-day costs at party headquarters ran to between £250,000 and £300,000 annually, and they did have the income to meet that expenditure. While overall debt now stood at £305,000 with the party's net bank deficit standing at £270,000 on December 31st 1998, this was a drop of £25,000 on the previous year's bank deficit.
He said that the PDs received just £52,000 of the overall £1 million allocation of public funds for elections. The party had received just one donation of more than £4,000, which had been disclosed to the authorities. That was £10,000 and came from Irish Distillers before the last election.
He explained that the party had a facility letter from the bank for £260,000 which allowed for a £215,000 overdraft and a term loan of £45,000. The 25 peopled named in the report had each pledged to guarantee £10,000 of that money. The loan was being reduced by £20,000 a year.
It was "disappointing" that the figures from NIB were "raked over in the press", Mr Mackay said, apologising to the 25 guarantors who had been named.