IRELAND’S POLITICAL PARTIES had their private political activities funded by the taxpayer to the tune of €13.8m last year, according to figures published today by the Sunday Tribune.

The figures, published by the Standards in Public Office commission in May, showed that Fianna Fáil received almost €5.7m in exchequer funds last year, with almost exactly half of that money being spent on the ‘party leader’s allowance’, a payment that funds the operations of the leader’s office.

Fine Gael spent €4.69m, while Labour spent €1.91m. Sinn Féin spent €753,574, while the Greens incurred €727,189. Even the Progressive Democrats managed to receive some payments – the party was wound down officially in November 2009 – and received over €75,000 in party leaders’ activities.

When broken down, Fianna Fáil spent €1.47m of the €2.8m in exchequer funding on “personnel costs” for the party’s offices – covering expenditure such as telephone bills or private photographers – with €814,547 in wages.

The party also spent €224,516 on legal fees, €114,088 on travel, meetings and subsistence, while €110,000 was spent on “research”. It also benefited to the tune of almost €19,000 for depreciation of its assets.

Fine Gael’s expenditure was largely made up of consultancy and media training – with the two combined accounting for almost €430,000 of its spending – while it also spent €215,090 on private research and opinion polling. The Fine Gael leaders’ allowance actually exceeded that claimed by Fianna Fáil, totalling €3.11m.

Labour spent €102,325 on public relations and printing and €52,385 on its party conference, while Sinn Féin spent €42,553 on its Árdfheis and most of its €750,000 total on wages and expenses, and the Greens ran up €83,618 in printing and almost €100,000 on conventions.

The PDs final bill was largely made up of €49,250 in administration costs relating to its winding down, with a small amount also spent on travel and accommodation costs for party leaders Ciaran Cannon and Noel Grealish.