The Dublin-based peace and human rights organisation, Afri (Action from Ireland), has denied claims that it is using funds from a UK-based charitable trust to promote a No vote on the Nice Treaty. It was responding to allegations made by the Irish Alliance for Europe and in an anonymous e-mail circulated to journalists.
The alliance, which is campaigning for a Yes vote on Nice, said in a statement that Afri, which also campaigned in the last Nice referendum, had questions to answer.
"It appears that the UK's Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) has given Afri a total of stg£35,000 in two grants since 2001. The first was an amount of stg£25,000, payable over 12 months, to fund a 'follow-up on the Nice referendum campaign'," the alliance said.
"The second was a single grant of stg£10,000 to fund an education and advocacy programme on the Nice Treaty'."
The statement pointed out that electoral legislation forbade campaigning organisations in a referendum from accepting single donations in excess of €6,348.69 and prohibited all donations from outside the island of Ireland.
The alliance called on the Standards in Public Office Commission to investigate the matter. It also asked why a charitable trust had chosen "to fund activities that are clearly partisan and openly political" and to "interfere in a referendum debate in a sovereign, democratic state".
Other allegations about Afri were made in an anonymous e-mail sent from the following address: concernedeuropean@eircom.net
It stated that the JRCT had given Afri "large amounts of campaign funding", in four separate payments totalling over €100,000.
In a statement, Afri said it was spending between €10,000 and €12,000 in its referendum campaign. This consisted of donations from supporters based in Ireland and "sales of St Brigid Crosses which are supplied to shops throughout the country".
Afri said it had applied to the JRCT last year for funding for the Nice Treaty campaign, but "when the Electoral Act came into force this money was redesignated to education awareness-raising work".
This included research into conflict and development aid, the arms trade and the security situation in Macedonia. "These reports do not make any recommendation re the Nice Treaty and the research will not be published until later this year," it said.
Afri also receives annual funding estimated at more than €100,000 from the Department of Foreign Affairs and about €15,000 from the Catholic Church's Third World aid and development agency, Trócaire.
"None of this funding has been used for the Nice Treaty campaign," the Afri statement said, adding: "It is worth noting that [the employers' group] IBEC alone is spending €500,000 from corporate sponsors".
Afri said it was seeking legal advice on "scurrilous innuendo of a defamatory character" which was allegedly contained in the two statements.