FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern received a donation of €13,500 last year arising from his free use of St Luke’s as his office, according to the Standards in Public Office Commission.
Another former Fianna Fáil TD and constituency colleague, Cyprian Brady, valued his free use of an office in St Luke’s at €19,000, according to his filing to the commission.
The commission says the donations disclosed by both politicians exceeded the normal allowable maximum of €2,539.48. However, it said this prescribed limit does not apply to the donation of a constituency office to a TD, Senator or MEP.
St Luke’s, a two-storey redbrick house at Lower Drumcondra Road, was purchased in the late 1980s for use as Mr Ahern’s constituency headquarters. It was bought in trust by a number of his supporters.
The donations to the two former deputies are the largest political donations disclosed last year, according to a report published by the commission last night.
Fine Gael Minister Simon Coveney disclosed donations totalling €19,650 from 10 different donors, including one for €2,000 from former rugby international Brendan Mullin and his wife Sharon.
Labour MEP, now TD, Alan Kelly, received almost €11,000 from five donors, including Siptu and his US-based brother Declan.
Independent Senator Ronan Mullen got almost €10,000 from four donors, including €2,406.09 from a “lodgement to self”.
Fianna Fáil TDs declared a total of almost €47,000 in donations, Fine Gael €25,000 and the Greens €3,700. Labour representatives disclosed almost €14,000, but there were no declarations from Sinn Féin or the Socialist Party.
In total, TDs, Senators and MEPs disclosed donations worth €99,843 for 2010.
Individual politicians are required to disclose individual donations over €634.87 in a particular year.
Of the 237 politicians who filed statements, 15 TDs disclosed donations totalling €75,228 and three Senators disclosed a total of €13,634. A single MEP, Mr Kelly, disclosed donations with a total value of €10,981.
Donations to political parties have fallen to their lowest level since the law requiring disclosure was introduced in 1997, figures from the commission also show.
Last year, the political parties disclosed a total of just €67,907.55. Donations disclosed by the Green Party amounted to €38,088. Sinn Féin disclosed €24,000.
The Socialist Party disclosed €5,819.55. No other party disclosed any donations in 2010.
Political parties are required to disclose donations exceeding €5,078.95 in value, and the maximum a party can accept from the same donor in the same year is €6,348.69.
The commission also revealed that the political parties received a total of €13.5 million in State funding last year.
Fianna Fáil got €5.2 million, Fine Gael €4.48 million and Labour €2.2 million.
The Greens were paid €802,000 and Sinn Féin €830,000.
