By Andrew Bushe and Ray O’Hanlon
DUBLIN – Fianna Fail received dollops of cash from builders, Sinn Fein is not themselves alone at all but is 100 percent reliant on U.S. finance, all the main parties are partial to some of the hard stuff from Irish Distillers, and Democratic Left doesn’t get much in the way of munificence from big business.
These were the main results of the first publication of political donations over _4,000 between May 15 and Dec. 31 as a result of the 1997 Electoral Act.
None of the revelations raised many eyebrows, although Irish America pops up here and there with donations from the likes of Mayo-born Massachusetts businessman Tom Flatley to Bertie Ahern’s Fianna Fail and Mutual of America chairman Bill Flynn to former presidential hopeful Dana.
Flatley is listed as having given $10,000 to Fianna Fail, while another listed U.S. contributor to the party is Joseph Corcoran of Boston, who donated _5,000.
The largest donation to Dana Rosemary Scallon’s presidential campaign was _6,728.32 from Bill Flynn – more than a third of her declared campaign total of _18,500.
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Ten small parties, including the Greens, declared no donations over the threshold. The only donation for DL was a sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul – the party leader, Prionsias De Rossa, gave _5,000.
The only donor common to all the large parties was Irish Distillers. It measured out the cash proportionately from _25,000 for Fianna Fail down to _10,000 for the Progressive Democrats partners in the coalition.
In fact, the drinks company’s cash was all that the PDs declared.
As the biggest party, Fianna Fail easily got the most cash. They also got the biggest single donation: _80,250 from DCD Builders.
Trailing behind Fianna Fail’s total of _230,00 declared was Fine Gael’s _27,500.
All of Sinn Fein’s _94,000 came from the Friends of Sinn Fein group in the U.S. in five separate dollar donations.
In the presidential stakes, Mary McAleese was by far the biggest spender, with her campaign costing about _500,000.
The other candidates received little support from businesses, the only exception being former Garda sergeant Derek Nally, whose local community of Bunclody, Co. Wexford, cashed in to support him.
Most of the campaigns of the main candidates were paid for by their respective parties.
The presidential candidates had to reveal donations worth over _500 and some declarations involved clothes, cars and even a helicopter.
Meanwhile, Friends of Sinn Fein is expected to file its latest fund-raising returns with the U.S. Department of Justice at the end of this week.
The group was due to file by May 31 but asked for and received a brief extension due to being fully occupied with the recent visit to the U.S. of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
Rough estimates of the amount of money collected by FOSF in the U.S. since March 1995 currently place the total close to, or even possibly exceeding, $2.5 million.
The recent Adams visit grossed in the area of $100,000. Once expenses are cleared, the remaining funds are to be used to cover costs in Sinn Fein’s campaign for the upcoming assembly elections in Northern Ireland.