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Sinn Féin tells State watchdog UK rules apply to €4m donation

Winters

I found this an interesting article.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/sinn-f%C3%A9in-tells-state-watchdog-uk-rules-apply-to-4m-donation-1.4384246

In the Republic, the maximum donation that can be accepted by a political party is €2,500

The execution of this will could possibly be in question as it was stated he left the bulk of his estate “in trust for the political party in the Republic of Ireland known at this time as Sinn Féin”.

Yet Sinn Fein have used their Northern Ireland location to accept the €4m donation as the UK's donation rules do not have a limit from individuals.

Whether there is more to come on this or not it appears the Irish watchdog can go no further.

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Chips Lovell

Could this be a way for other parties to circumvent fundraising rules by setting up shop in Northern Ireland?

L1011

The majority of parties have an NI setup already, FF, Green, PBP, Aontú and obviously SF. It's basically FG and Labour who don't.

View

SF are “as British as Finchley” when it suits them.

beggars_bush

View wrote: »

SF are “as British as Finchley” when it suits them.

Have their tea cake and eat it

BonnieSituation

Well, now they can buy as much cake as they wish.

What do the anti-SF brigade think they should do with the money?

mickdw

So sinn fein south of the border cannot access any of these funds i presume?

Peregrinus

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Well, now they can buy as much cake as they wish.

What do the anti-SF brigade think they should do with the money?

Decline it, obviously.

coylemj

It's ironic in the extreme but nothing less than what you'd expect from SF.

When SF want to insult someone for not being as republican as they think they are, they accuse them of having a 'partitionist mentality'. They then conveniently declare themselves to be two separate entities so that the NI wing can evade ethical rules on donations.

Which is about as partitionist as you can get :rolleyes:

Pkiernan

Its obvious that this proves that SF want to keep the 6 countues as part of the UK.
Helps keep them in power.

grayzer75

Legally playing the system, fair play.

Winters

There seem to be two rules here that are important in this issue.

The limit of €2,500 per donation but more importantly that the individual was not eligible to donate this money to a political party in Ireland (ROI) as he was neither an Irish citizen nor resident for the required amount of time.

However the focus should be on the executers or the Will. The money has not been given to Sinn Fein (Republic of Ireland) as instructed.

coylemj

Winters wrote: »

However the focus should be on the executers or the Will. The money has not been given to Sinn Fein (Republic of Ireland) as instructed.

If there has been legal malpractice in the execution of the will, the 'injured party' is SF in the south. And they're not going to take a case against the executor. So nothing will happen.

Peregrinus

coylemj wrote: »

If there has been legal malpractice in the execution of the will, the 'injured party' is SF in the south. And they're not going to take a case against the executor. So nothing will happen.

Nope. The injured party is whoever would get the money if it were offered to SF in the Republic and they declined it - the residuary beneficiaries under the will.

coylemj

Peregrinus wrote: »

Nope. The injured party is whoever would get the money if it were offered to SF in the Republic and they declined it - the residuary beneficiaries under the will.

The guy made his will in 1997 and never changed it. So it looks like SF was the residuary legatee.

VinLieger

It seems highly hypocritical of them to on the one hand accept this donation in the way they have yet several years ago when the DUP effectively used a very similar loophole available to parties in NI for which they received 425,000 pounds to skirt UK referendum campaign ad limits to run pro-brexit ads in england, sinn fein were rightly very critical.

rdwight

The most surprising part of this is not the casuistry used by Sinn Fein to get around rules on donations (most parties or individuals would do the same) It is, as the OP says, that they have been been allowed legally to divert the bequest which was explicitly left to Sinn Fein in the Republic to a different entity.

Donor sounds like a decent skin
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/donor-who-left-16m-to-sinn-fein-mutilated-himself-after-allegation-of-affair-38479486.html

.

Good loser

rdwight wrote: »

The most surprising part of this is not the casuistry used by Sinn Fein to get around rules on donations (most parties or individuals would do the same) It is, as the OP says, that they have been been allowed legally to divert the bequest which was explicitly left to Sinn Fein in the Republic to a different entity.

Donor sounds like a decent skin
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/donor-who-left-16m-to-sinn-fein-mutilated-himself-after-allegation-of-affair-38479486.html

.

David Cullinane would be very insistent and vocal about the distinction outlined in the last sentence - if the situation was reversed.

VinLieger

The big takeaway from this is surely Sinn Fein are finally admitting they are not an all Ireland party

blanch152

VinLieger wrote: »

The big takeaway from this is surely Sinn Fein are finally admitting they are not an all Ireland party

There has been more on Sinn Feinfinances in the last day or so,with some very murky dealings on business grants.

[Deleted User]

BonnieSituation wrote: »

What do the anti-SF brigade think they should do with the money?

Use it as interest on their unofficial loan from the Northern Bank

FatherTed

Oh so now they're a British party when they don't want to play by the rules?

coylemj

FatherTed wrote: »

Oh so now they're a British party when they don't want to play by the rules?

Nothing new there, they've been claiming House of Commons expenses for several years, despite none of their MPs taking their seats. Phantom London apartments for which they claim rent, that sort of thing. Taking the King's shilling was never a problem for the shinners.

HerrKuehn

Interesting how little comment this received from the SF defenders. Are SF an Irish party or a British party? If they are an Irish party why are they using UK rules for receiving a donation of €4m euros from a single donor when the maximum allowed in the ROI is €2500?

murphaph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/114991043#Comment_114991043

Let's see how legal it was/remains. I expect at the very least that the monies never enter the Republic and remain solely for use by SF in the UK, if they want to use UK rules to accept it. There's definitely an unanswered question about the role of the executors of the man's will it seems. They did not follow the instructions of the deceased and diverted the legacy to an entity not mentioned in the will (SF NI/UK). I expect they should have made a €2,500 donation to SF in the Republic and the rest should have been put back into the residuary of the deceased's estate, ultimately passing to the British state if no other natural heirs could be found.

I've just realised this is "old news" but it is indeed interesting that SF made use of the border to accept this donation. I think the rules need tightening up to prevent any political party from siphoning resources back and forth across the border. I wonder how robust the policing of this stuff is. I bet a lot of SF election posters in the south will end up being paid for by northern credit cards.

[Deleted User]

Before the Troy whataboutery and deflection begins, Troy did the honourable thing and stepped down. Surely Mcdonald should follow his example and do the same.

Hermy

There's nothing honourable about stepping down in the circumstances that he did.

[Deleted User]

Yep, it's " big bad Sinn Fein" again .

# sigh # yawn .

murphaph

It's not so much big bad SF. It's that SF like to portray themselves as the ones that are squeaky clean while the "FFG" lot are all as crooked as can be. The truth is, there are crooked characters in all these parties. If you want to be able to hold the likes of Troy to account for his wrongdoing, you need to be clean yourself.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119523358#Comment_119523358

Same applies to the $$$$ fundraising events they hold in the US... where does the money actually go and can they state with certainty that Irish electoral law is being observed?

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606571#Comment_119606571

They claim that it is being observed, but there was a rumour that America had a hand in paying for Pearse's new constituency office, but he deleted the reference from his speech. Don't know how true that was. There is a mention of some shenanigans in this article.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/sinn-feins-pearse-doherty-hits-back-after-leo-varadkar-tells-dail-he-abused-and-mistreated-a-garda-41759711.html