TDs, senators list donations in excess of £500

The builder Mr Michael Bailey, architect Mr Ambrose Kelly and former CIE chairman Mr Dermot O'Leary donated £800 each to Dublin Fianna Fail TD Ms Marian McGennis last year, according to her declaration of donations.

Ms McGennis had the second-highest level of declared political donations, £15,100, the proceeds of a golf "classic" held in 1998: 17 donations of £800 and one of £1,500. Fellow Fianna Fail TD Mr Liam Lawlor raised a total of £17,600 from another golf classic.

The details of donations exceeding £500 to MEPs, senators and TDs were put before the Dail on Thursday.

The declarations, which are made to the Public Offices Commission, showed that just 18 TDs and two senators listed donations over £500.

Ms McGennis said that the proceeds from the golf classic after costs amounted to less than £9,000 which would be spent on a new constituency office in Ballyfermot. She said she deliberately made the entrance fee for teams higher than the £500 threshold so that they would have to be declared, she said.

"If I had run it at £500 a team I could have raised about £40,000 and nobody would have been any the wiser. But I felt more comfortable doing it that way. It was a cleaner way."

Mr O'Leary is the chairman of her new constituency, she said. She knew Mr Kelly and Mr Bailey would have been one of a list of business people who were invited to take part. "I knew Mick [Bailey] was a party man," she said.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, listed an amount of £7,590 for his office facilities from the Fianna Fail party. Environment Minister Mr Dempsey declared a £1,200 donation from a Navan printing company, BCR Press, for "printing facilities for clinic leaflets and newsletters".

Fine Gael TD for Cork East Mr Paul Bradford declared £2,000 as the value of a room provided by his constituency secretary. Labour TD Mr Brendan Howlin named SIPTU as the donor of £1,500 worth of office space in Wexford. Mayo Fine Gael TD Mr Enda Kenny declared a £983 donation from his party for the costs of placing party notices in newspapers. Dublin Fianna Fail TD Mr Ivor Callely declared the £399 cost of a Nokia mobile phone and £1,400 for the phone line from Eircell.

The company also contributed £1,000 to a golf classic organised by Fianna Fail TD Mr Liam Lawlor.