Businessman Michael Stone made two other donations worth €1,716 to Fine Gael in addition to the postering services he donated during the 2016 General Election campaign, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe has disclosed in the Dáil.
Mr Donohoe said that in 2020 and 2021 Mr Stone, the founder of engineering company Designer Group, purchased superdraw tickets for the Fine Gael party, which were sold to him by Mr Donohoe. Mr Stone bought five tickets worth €334 in 2020 and 22 tickets worth €1,382 in 2021.
In a personal statement to the Dáil relating to his failure to include a donation of services worth €1,057 by Mr Stone during the 2016 campaign, Mr Donohoe apologised for the omission and said he was “very sorry that it has happened”. A total of €917 was donated by way of services by workers erecting the posters and a further €140 for the use of a van.
Mr Donohoe also said that as the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) was now examining the donation, he has recused himself from any policy area involving electoral or ethical policy. He said that Minister for Finance Michael McGrath would now assume responsibility for those areas.
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The Minister said that Mr Stone was a man of the very highest standards and had given back to the northeast inner city in which he had grown up.
He said the donations to the superdraw were below the limit and were “not required to be disclosed”.
“However, I want to be fully transparent to the House,” Mr Donohoe said.
Mr Stone supplied the use of a van and six workers, working in pairs, to erect posters for Mr Donohoe over a period of four days.
Mr Donohoe told the Dáil: “Neither myself nor anyone involved in my campaign team paid the people concerned, nor was I, at that time, aware they had been paid. For that reason, no cost was attributed to this support on the election expense form submitted to Sipo, following that election.”
He said having reviewed the matter following last week’s complaint to Sipo, he now accepted that a payment had been made. Mr Donohoe added that before last week, he had not been “aware before this time of any payment having been made”.
Mr Donohoe said the personal payment by Mr Stone had been to the local Fine Gael organisation rather than to himself. That meant that a higher limit applied for donations, a maximum of €2,500 rather than €1,000.
[ What questions does Paschal Donohoe have to answer on his 2016 election expenses?Opens in new window ]
He said he had become aware of the use of the van as early as 2017. “In retrospect, I should have amended my election expenses form at that time to the value of €140 to take account of the commercial value of a vehicle for the hours used. This was a mistake on my part and I acknowledge and apologise for that error,” Mr Donohoe said.
“Neither myself nor any of my team intentionally misinformed Sipo or knew that a form was incorrectly submitted to them. In light of the information that has now been made available to me, I have taken the steps to address the issue as fully as I can.”
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty accused Mr Donohoe of trying to cover up his failure to register the donation by “concocting a story that does not stack up”.
Mr Doherty said that Mr Donohoe claimed the work was done at night when it was done in the middle of the day. He said that the law was clear that expenses that were incurred on candidates’ behalf had to attributed to the candidate and not to the party.
He claimed the Minister was now trying to “reverse engineer” the payments to ensure they came in at below the allowable limits.
Mr Doherty said another candidate in the constituency, Mary Fitzpatrick, had paid €5,000 to erect, and remove, posters. He said the rate of pay suggested the workers were “climbing up two poles per hour”.
“It is laughable what you are trying to do. You are taking us for fools,” he said.
Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash said Mr Donohoe was selling us a narrative that suits his own end.
Co-leader of the Social Democrats Róisín Shortall said he had tried to stonewall the media when inquires were made in November. Both Mr Nash and Ms Shortall also questioned if the donation equated to the commercial value that would be charged for putting up posters.
