Sinn Féin have been rocked by their own election expenses scandal after a week of the party slamming Fine Gael’s Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe over similar errors.
Mr Donohoe has apologised for a failure to declare expenses related to postering work that was financed by the businessman Michael Stone during the 2016 and 2020 general elections and has amended his returns to Sipo.
The minister said he wrongly assumed the postering had been done on a voluntary basis.
READ MORE: Sinn Fein admits failure to declare expenses in 2016 election campaign
Sinn Fein has now revealed it failed to declare a series of expenses related to the hosting of press conferences during the 2016 general election campaign.
The undeclared expenses were for the hire of five indoor venues in Dublin, one of which was used twice, that totalled €2,160.70.
The sums involved for hiring the venues were €360 for the Westin Hotel, €397.20 for Wynns Hotel, €600 for hiring the Royal Irish Academy twice, €250 for the Gresham Hotel and €553.50 for the National Gallery.
Sinn Féin admitted the mistakes were made and said that they would be amending the official register of electoral expenses managed by the political ethics watchdog, SIPO (Standards In Public Office commission).
This is very similar to the mistake Mr Donohoe made regarding the postering work done during the 2016 and 2020 elections which Sinn Féin had hounded him over.
A spokeswoman for Sinn Fáin said: “Sinn Féin held twenty-three press events during the 2016 general election campaign.
“The vast majority of these were held at party headquarters or in outdoor public spaces. “However, six press conferences were held at other indoor venues.
“Their use should have been included in our election return seven years ago.
“We regret that they were not.
“The total value of the hire of these venues was €2,160.70.
“All these invoices - bar one - were paid at the time.
“The remaining invoice has now been paid.
“Our election return will be amended as appropriate and returned to SIPO.
“The maximum amount permitted to be spent by Sinn Féin in the 2016 general election campaign, per SIPO rules, was €229,000 at a national level.
“Even with the addition of these invoices, Sinn Féin's election expenses were less than a third of this amount."
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin last night decided that the party will not be pressing ahead with a vote of no confidence in Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe.
The main opposition party was mulling over lodging a motion after the Public Expenditure was forced to come before the Dáil twice in a week to explain past election expenses.
However, after Mr Donohoe faced down TDs last Thursday, and again on Tuesday, it seemed that he had satisfied most TD’s concerns.
Sinn Féin were believed to be considering pressing the issue again on Thursday morning, but by last night the possibility had fallen away again, with party sources telling the Irish Mirror it was “dead in the water.”
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