Registrar of Political Parties to rule on which faction of the National Party can use its name for elections

The Registrar of Political Parties, Art O’Leary, will make a decision this month on which of the two factions of the right-wing National Party will have the right to use the party name going into the local and European elections.

The party’s official entry on the Register names its founder Justin Barrett and James Reynolds as the authorised officers of the National Party. Its address is given as Mr Barrett’s home address in Granard, Co Longford.

Last July then deputy leader Mr Reynolds and his supporters issued a statement saying Mr Barrett had been removed from his position of leader of the party. The statement cited a lack of confidence and a hands-off leadership style that had “allowed the party to go to seed”. Mr Barrett subsequently made a complaint to the Garda that gold bars worth an estimated €400,000 had been removed from a vault in Dublin by the other faction. The bullion was recovered by the Garda, which then tried to establish its legal ownership. The other faction said it had transferred the gold to another vault to prevent Mr Barrett gaining access to it.

Several politicians, including Senator Michael McDowell, asked how a micro-party with no public representatives could have amassed such a quantity of gold. Mr Barrett had previously said it was “dearly gathered by the sacrifice of party members and supporters over these many years”. The National Party has never submitted details of party finances to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), but the ethical watchdog says it has no authority to penalise parties for not submitting accounts.

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Since the split the faction led by Mr Reynolds, a Co Longford farmer, has continued to hold meetings and elected him as permanent leader at an annual general meeting held in Portlaoise, Co Laois, in December.

Mr Barrett has claimed it has only been able to portray itself publicly as the National Party because Mr Reynolds’ faction seized control of the party’s social media accounts, including Facebook, X and Instagram.

The Reynolds faction contacted the Electoral Commission last July to request the register of political parties be updated to remove Mr Barrett’s name as an authorised officer and to change the address of the party’s headquarters. Ten days later Mr Barrett made his own submission to the commission. Mr O’Leary, who is also chief executive of the commission, has received further submissions from both sides.

A spokesman for the commission said this weekend: “Two separate applications to amend the register in respect of the National Party have been made, and the registrar is currently considering submissions made by both individuals. A decision is expected shortly.”

Responding to a query from The Irish Times, Mr Reynolds’ faction said it believed the submissions made to Mr O’Leary were “sufficiently strong to demonstrate the validity of the change of leadership in 2023”. It said that party had held an AGM of paid-up members in Portlaoise on December 16th. It had elected nine members of a new national directorate (now renamed ard chomhairle). The Electoral Commission had been made aware of this, it said.

Efforts were made to contact Mr Barrett.

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