Paschal Donohoe to refund some money donated to his…

Paschal Donohoe to refund some money donated to his election campaign

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe says DesignerGroup and Michael Stone will receive a refund as their election donations exceeded limits.

The Fine Gael TD said that he asked Mr Stone several times if he had hung up posters during the 2020 election and was repeatedly told he did not.

In a statement on Tuesday morning, Mr Stone confirmed that he had paid people to hang posters as part of the 2020 election.

Appearing in front of the Dáil on Tuesday afternoon, the Fine Gael TD said that he “deeply regrets” that this controversy “caused the loss of Michael Stone from the boards of both the Land Development Agency and the North East Inner City Taskforce”.

Mr Donohoe appeared in front of the Dáil to answer questions about his election expenses on Tuesday afternoon.

He said: “The situation regarding support provided in 2020 was unclear.

“There was some recollection by my team of support being provided by Michael Stone in 2020 but despite my asking directly a couple of times, Mr Stone’s view was that he had not provided any support three years ago. This was confirmed to me on more than one occasion.

“On Wednesday night after my Dáil statement, I received a call from Michael Stone telling me that a member of his team did recall support being provided in 2020 through the campaign team. This prompted his call to me.

“The details of the support provided are outlined in the statement from Mr. Stone, which he issued earlier today. I was unaware of any of these details prior to Wednesday night.

“Despite my best efforts in recent weeks to ensure the fullest account of the support given in both 2016 and 2020 was accurate, an amendment will now be made to my 2020 General Election expenses form to reflect the new information to the amount of €864 for labour and €392.20 for vehicles for support received during the election period.”

Minister Donohoe added that an “unauthorised corporate donation of €434.20 was unknowingly received by Fine Gael Dublin Central”. This related to the use of vehicles and the TD noted that it exceeded the €200 maximum allowable donation limit.

He continued: “SIPO have been notified of this breach and €234.20, the amount received in excess of the allowable limit, will be refunded to the Designer Group.

“An amendment will also be made this week to my election expenses return to the value of €1256.20 for the work carried out and use of the vans up to polling day.”

Minister Donohoe restated that he believed that the erection and removal of posters was voluntary.

Mr Stone resigned from the LDA and the Land Development Agency and the North East Inner City Taskforce due to the controversy.