MINISTER FOR Health Mary Harney has written to the Department of Finance requesting that no further State funds be paid to the Progressive Democrats under the party leader’s allowance.
Former party leader Senator Ciarán Cannon also wrote to the department, shortly before he resigned to join Fine Gael. He requested in his letter that no further payments be made to the PDs under the Electoral Act.
Last year the PDs received a total of €185,080.70 under the party leader’s allowance. As of last January, the party had also received the following payments under the Electoral Act during 2008/2009: January 2008, €66,172; April 2008, €66,459; July 2008, €67,033; October 2008, €67,327 and January 2009, €67,915.
In her letter to a senior official in the department, dated March 23rd, Ms Harney points out that the PDs’ members made a decision to “bring our party to an end”.
It was their intention to write to the registrar of political parties, clerk of the Dáil Kieran Coughlan, “requesting that the party be removed from the register”.
The letter continues: “With this in mind, I would appreciate if you could ensure that no more funding is received under the party leader’s allowance.It is also our intention to reimburse the balance of funding and I will be in touch with you shortly to make the necessary arrangements.”
A similar letter was also sent by Senator Cannon stating that the PDs did not wish to receive any more funding.
PD sources told The Irish Times: “If a cheque arrives, it will be returned.” As there were still some administrative matters to be cleared up, the PDs had not as yet made a formal request to be removed from the register.
