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Only three members of the Oireachtas reported donations worth over €647 for 2012. Brood_wich via Flickr
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239 politicians disclose total of €3,800 donations in 2012

TDs, Senators and MEPs are only legally required to disclose donations if a single donor gives more than €634.87.

239 OF IRELAND’S TDs, Senators and MEPs have disclosed donations with a total value of €3,800 for the calendar year 2012.

The donations, published this afternoon by the Standards in Public Office Commission, see just three public representatives declare donations.

The three are Wicklow independent TD Stephen Donnelly; Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Central, Mary Lou McDonald; and Galway-based Fine Gael senator Fidelma Healy Eames.

Donnelly was donated €2,500 in “services and equipment” from Shuttle Media in Greystones. That company provided an online streaming service for a public meeting convened by Donnelly in April, ahead of the referendum on the Fiscal Compact.

McDonald received a €1,000 cheque from a private individual in her constituency, while Healy Eames received €300 in cash from an individual in Athenry – a donation which she was not legally required to disclose.

The disclosures were filed by 166 TDs, 60 Senators, 12 MEPs and one former MEP, Proinsias de Rossa.

Legal rules surrounding political donations for 2012 mean public representatives were only required to disclose donations – including the use of facilities or services, as well as monetary donations – if a single donor offers more than €634.87 in any calendar year.

The limits also required politicians to refuse any donations worth over €2.539.48 from any single donor in a year. No members reached this limit in 2012.

These limits have been reduced across the board by laws which also require political parties to offer a minimum proportion of female candidates for election.

SIPO said only one member of the Oireachtas – Labour party chairman Colm Keaveney – has so far failed to file a disclosure for donations, though another 15 politicians were late in meeting the disclosure deadline of January 31.

Keaveney told TheJournal.ie this evening that he had, however, filed his disclosure – which stated that he had received no donations – with the Commission, and that he was surprised to be told that his submission had not been received.

“If I am asked to file the disclosure a second time, I have no problem doing so,” he said.

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