DUBLIN – Eurogroup chairman Pascal Donohoe admitted on Tuesday to receiving corporate donations that crossed the border to Ireland strict legal limitsDeepening a scandal that is affecting the stability of Ireland’s coalition government.
Donohoe, the longest serving finance minister who last month cabinet roles changed And now in charge of public expenditure and reform, he issued his second apology in a week to parliament for mishandling expenditure declarations for his Irish election campaigns in 2016 and – also on Tuesday in a new admission – in 2020. as well.
contrary to early defense Last week, Donohoe said he now accepted that a portion of the undeclared donation from a business friend should have been reported as coming from an unregistered corporate donor. These should be limited to €200 only, not the €1,000 cap on individual donations.
Donohoe cited the higher limit last week in an attempt to show that the 2016 campaign donations, although not reported correctly, did not violate the legal donation limit.
But Donohoe was obliged to change his explanation and arithmetic once the donor, former construction industry federation head Michael Stone, confirmed on Tuesday morning that he had used his own workers to put up campaign posters for Donohoe ahead of both elections. Had paid half a dozen. He was photographed using a van bearing Stone’s company name. Designer Group.
calculus blamed myself to put Donohoe in an awkward position and resigned from his two government-appointed positions land development agency And a Urban Regeneration Trust,
Donohoe said he has informed Ireland Standards in Public Office Commission, known as SIPO, that his office would return €234.20 to Stone’s designer group as part of last week’s review and discovery of the donation, which he described as “unauthorized” and “inadvertent”. did. SIPO – an independent body overseen by Donohoe’s own ministry – has launched an investigation into Donohoe’s election expenses, covering both election years.
Donohoe described his mistakes as the product of “insufficient attention”, particularly in 2020 when he was the Fine Gael party’s election director responsible for campaign strategy in 39 constituencies nationwide. He insisted that he simply did not know that, back home in his Dublin Central district, Stone was paying his own construction workers to put up posters.
But opposition parties ridiculed Donohoe’s revised explanation, led by Sinn Féin, which topped the 2020 election and looks set to oust Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael and its coalition partners from power.
Sinn Fein Finance Spokesperson pierce doherty Donohoe of presenting false figures, underestimating the true value of Stone’s contribution and “attempting to reverse-engineer the numbers to make it all look plausible.”
They rejected Donohoe’s main claim that Stone’s use of company vans should be treated as a corporate donation subject to the €200 rule, while Stone paid his employees to use those vans to put up posters. which was to be treated as a personal donation down to €. 1,000 limit for that category.
When Sinn Féin hecklers drowned in Donohoe’s reply, he quipped, “I don’t know whether you are interested in my answer or in my head.”
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Sinn Féin said it was still considering whether to seek a vote of confidence in Donohoe. Sinn Féin has already twice tested the government’s hold on power by demanding a vote of confidence Varadkar and former foreign minister, Simon Coveney, The government – which includes the Green Party and draws outside support from rural independent MPs – retained a comfortable majority in both votes.
Losing the confidence vote would trigger a snap election, while the government hopes to complete its five-year term by February 2025.