Left-wing political parties provided about €115,500 towards President Catherine Connolly’s successful election campaign.
The combined sum from Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, the Labour Party and People Before Profit amounted to more than a quarter of the almost €447,000 in total spending declared by the former Independent TD’s campaign.
In addition to the contributions from the parties, the Connolly campaign conducted grassroots fundraising to cover election costs.
Ms Connolly’s election victory last October entitles her to a €250,000 reimbursement of election expenses from the State.
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The sums contributed by the political parties in support of Ms Connolly’s run for Áras an Uachtaráin are not listed in the Connolly campaign Election Expenses Statement filed with the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).
In the document, the campaign lists senior figures from the four parties as “persons authorised by the Election Agent to incur election expenses” and a combined “amount authorised to spend” of as much as €250,000.
Sinn Féin told The Irish Times its financial contribution to the campaign amounted to €60,094.74.
This is some €10,000 more than the “authorised” spend of €50,000 listed by the Connolly campaign under the name of Sam Baker, Sinn Féin’s general secretary, in the expenses statement sent to Sipo.
Asked about the higher spend, a Sinn Féin spokesman said: “Elections are a fast-moving project, run day to day, and decisions are fluid as the campaign develops.”
Representatives of Connolly campaign did not respond to queries on the matter.
Sinn Féin also said the party had “a deep involvement in the Connolly campaign” and this included “personnel, canvassing, leafleting, postering, organising events across the State, helping organise fundraising events and making donations to the campaign”.
The Connolly campaign listed authorised election expenses for the general secretaries of the Social Democrats and the Labour Party – Sabrina Ryan and Billie Sparks, respectively – of up to €75,000 each.
Both parties declared their support for Ms Connolly several weeks before Sinn Féin decided to back the former Galway West TD’s presidential run.
The Social Democrats provided €27,000, but it will get some of this back. Its statement said it “loaned €15,000 to the Connolly campaign and the party spent €12,000 on the presidential election”. It said the loan was to be paid back later this year.
The Labour Party said: “The party directly spent €13,441, with most of this made up of a donation in kind of corriboard for poster printing” and it “does not expect to receive any reimbursement from the campaign”.
It said the €75,000 authorised spend listed in the Connolly campaign’s return to Sipo was an allocation that was “agreed at an early point of the campaign, as a maximum allocation to ensure any relevant expenditure was covered”.
The Connolly campaign listed a €50,000 “authorised” spend sum below the name of People Before Profit national organiser Darryl Horan.
People Before Profit estimates the party and its members “spent in the region of €15,000 on the campaign”. It has not had discussions with the Connolly campaign on “any reimbursement from its reimbursed expenses”.
It has previously been reported that Fine Gael declared spending of some €643,422 in its unsuccessful effort to get former minister Heather Humphreys elected president.
Fine Gael’s campaign did qualify for a €250,000 reimbursement from the State as Ms Humphreys share of the vote was above the eligibility threshold.
Fianna Fáil – whose candidate Jim Gavin halted his campaign before polling day due to a controversy related to his time as a landlord – declared spending of €392,962. The party did not qualify for any reimbursement from the State.
Overall, the spending declared by the three campaigns comes to a combined €1,483,342.
