THE STANDARDS IN Public Office Commission has released its figures regarding political donations to TDs, Senators and MEPs for 2015.
All told €33,870 was received by TDs and Senators during that time period.
These donations are distinct from contributions made directly to Ireland’s political parties.
Of the total figure mentioned above, €15,000 (45%) was received by two Fine Gael members, Wexford’s Michael D’Arcy (then a Senator, now a TD, who received €10,000) and Paschal Donohoe (now Minister for Public Expenditure, who received €5,000).
80% of Donohoe’s contributions came from the UK.
Fine Gael dominated the figures, receiving €22,670 in donations, or 67%.
Elsewhere, Social Democrat representatives received €4,000, Labour members got €3,450, and Fianna Fáil representatives received €3,000.
The vast majority of donations received were for €1,000, the maximum amount that can be accepted by a political representative from a person in one year.
Oddly enough, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin received a donation of €1,000 from Fianna Fáil itself, the party being officially registered as a corporate donor.
Of the 237 elected or formerly-elected persons, just three failed to submit their donation figures to the commission by the deadline of end January 2016.
Those members (Senators Cáit Keane, James Heffernan and Kathryn Reilly of Fine Gael, the Social Democrats, and Sinn Féin respectively) subsequently submitted their information and no files were referred to the gardaí. None of the three had any donations to disclose.
You can read the rest of the submitted figures regarding donations here.
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