THIS WEEK the 2011 donation statements made by TDs and Senators were published, giving some insight into how politics and election campaigning are funded. The rules, as applied in 2011, required each Oireachtas member to detail all donations over €634.87. Any donations below that threshold need not be declared and many experienced politicians and donors will have been careful enough to organise their affairs so as to keep them below it.
Topping the list is Senator Ronan Mullen who collected €18,277.96 in donations for his Seanad campaign on the NUI panel. Second is David Norris at €17,929.98 but these were all previously received and declared arising from his candidature in the presidential election. In the Dáil, two independent deputies top the list: Stephen Donnelly who got €11,652 in such donations and Shane Ross who was close behind him at €10,278.
One has to delve through the 800 or so pages of forms to find the most interesting details however. The returns show strong family financial support for some candidates. Among the very generous family members were New York-based publisher Niall O’Dowd who gave his brother Fergus €1,817.92; former commissioner Ray MacSharry who donated €2,500 to his son Marc; and businessman and former Clinton economic envoy Declan Kelly who donated €2,500 to his brother Alan’s campaign in Tipperary.
Although not required to, some deputies declared details of small-scale fundraising events. Independent Kerry deputy Tom Fleming funded his campaign largely it seems from the proceeds of two dinner dances: €1,886 from a dinner in Castleisland and €1,038 at an event in Killarney. More unusual fundraisers included a poetry reading raising just over €1,000 for Labour’s Anne Ferris in Wicklow; a €25-a-head wine-and-cheese party organised in Dún Laoghaire for Fine Gael’s Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, raising €3,285; a €40-a-head “golf classic” which brought in €808 for Labour’s Jack Wall in Kildare; and a “local auction fundraiser” at which Tommy Broughan raised €997.
The returns reveal that Labour Youth made medium-sized contributions to relatively young candidates who had been previously active in the youth wing. Among these was an €800 donation to Derek Nolan in Galway.
Similarly, Labour Women provided financial support for some of the party’s female candidates who were not already sitting TDs, Senators or MEPs. Anne Ferris in Wicklow, Marie Moloney in Kerry and Mary Moran in Louth each got just over €1,000. Lorraine Higgins in Galway East got just half that amount. Labour’s new young Waterford deputy, Ciara Conway, got a helping hand from both the party’s youth and women’s units receiving €1,000 from each.
Some deputies attracted donations from outside their area. Fine Gael’s Heather Humphreys, now a deputy for Cavan Monaghan, got €1,000 from the owners of the Russell Court Hotel in Dublin South East. Pádraig MacLochlainn in Donegal got a donation just above the threshold from a solicitor based in Capel Street in Dublin, while Martin Ferris from Kerry got €1,000 from a donor, Sean de Brún, in Dorset Street in Dublin Central. The party’s candidate in that constituency, Mary Lou McDonald, may have been unhappy had she not also got €1,000 from a John Browne named on her declaration at the same address.
In addition to Ross, Donnelly and Mullen, others who received large individual donations were those with business or professional backgrounds such as Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness or Labour’s Alex White. However, large donations were also received by the left-wing Waterford independent deputy John Halligan, who got €2,500 from one local backer and €1,000 from another.
The Socialist Party requires its public representatives to donate much of their public wages and expenses to the party’s cause, and both Joe Higgins and Clare Daly recorded substantial donations from local councillors.
One entry which jumps out is that of Fine Gael Dublin Mid West’s Derek Keating who received €2,500 from the GMB Trade Union for which an address in London is given. It seems Keating knows the general secretary of the union personally and had put in some effort locally for it on its Irish activities.
Keating is the only sitting parliamentarian outside of the Labour Party I can identify as receiving a declarable donation from a trade union. The Labour parliamentary party, however, benefited substantially from trade union support. Brendan Ryan in Dublin North received €2,116 from the Transport Staff Salaried Association, with headquarters at Helton Street, London, which also represents workers in transport and travel in Ireland.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland gave €2,500 to Labour Senator Mary Moran. The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation gave €1,000 to James Heffernan in Limerick, while Aodhán Ó Riordáin, now a Dublin North Central TD, got twice that amount.
The most significant trade union intervention in the 2011 election came from Siptu. It spent at least €30,000 on targeted donations to Labour Party candidates. However, funds were not spread evenly across the candidates nor it seems confined to Labour candidates who were members of or associated with the union. On my count, 13 Labour parliamentarians received Siptu donations of €2,500, just below the permitted maximum. Key Ministers such as Brendan Howlin, Joan Burton and Ruairí Quinn were among the objects of Siptu’s financial affections. So too were veteran deputies Emmet Stagg, Jack Wall and Willie Penrose. Dáil newcomers Kevin Humphreys in Dublin South East, Anne Ferris, Ged Nash in Louth and Colm Keaveney in Galway East were equally favoured.* Among the unsuccessful candidates who got Siptu money were John Kelly (Roscommon) and Marie Moloney (Kerry).
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This article was amended on 10/04/12 to correct a factual error.