The Progressive Democrats have defended fundraising letters encouraging donors to contribute sums just below State disclosure limits.
Hundreds of letters signed by party leader Michael McDowell have been sent to potential donors asking them to contribute €5,000 to an election fighting fund.
The €5,000 is "below the declarable limit" and "will not be the subject of any disclosure either voluntary or statutory", the letter, published in a Sunday newspaper said.
Last night, the Progressive Democrats justified Mr McDowell's letter, saying that it "complied with the spirit and the letter" of the ethics legislation.
Since its introduction, the identities of donors who pay more than €5,078 to a party, or €635 to an individual candidate in any one year, must be published.
However, the McDowell letter is accompanied by an attachment indicating there is nothing to stop "connected individuals or family members" of donors from making their own donations up to the €5,078 limit without facing disclosure.
"The whole spirit of the legislation is that people are encouraged to support the democratic process," Progressive Democrats spokeswoman said last night.
"It offers reassurance to people who wish to guard their privacy that their names would not be put in the public domain."
The ethics legislation allowed for people who wanted to contribute to politics to do so, as long as they kept their donations below the set limits, she said.
In his letter, Mr McDowell said the party had decided to write to 400 people to contribute €5,000 to a fund to help the party mount "a really effective public relations campaign".
Such a campaign was all the more important, he said, "given that sections of the media are extremely hostile. We have to get our message across directly to the electorate rather than through the medium of hostile commentators and indifferent editors."
Despite Mr McDowell's declaration in the letter that the appeal would be limited to 400 people, the party said "more than 400 letters will be sent".
"Common sense will be used in the selection of the people to whom we will be writing, but there is no club of 400," a spokeswoman told The Irish Times.
The people contacted by the party were entitled to their privacy, she said.
