POLITICAL DONATIONS:BUSINESSMAN DENIS O'Brien has made substantial political contributions to parties other than Fine Gael.
Most notably, he gave £50,000 each (€63,486.90) to Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, as well as Fine Gael, in 2000. He made the same contribution to Labour too, but the party returned the money “because of its size”.
A spokesman for Mr O’Brien said at the time that he offered the money “to support the democratic process”.
His contribution was the only one declared by Fine Gael in that year and amounted to one-third of Fianna Fáil’s declared donations.
The donations were unsolicited. The then Fianna Fáil general secretary Martin Mackin described the money his party received as “a complete surprise” and “exceptional”.
The money was given before a limit of about €6,350 was imposed on personal and corporate political donations and before the then Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan banned such donations in 2001, a ban that was later lifted by current party leader Enda Kenny.
In 1997, Mr O’Brien made a political donation of €3,264 to Fianna Fáil’s candidate in Dublin South West, Conor Lenihan. Mr Lenihan was a former employee of Mr O’Brien at Esat.
In 2009, the Standards in Public Office Commission records Mr O’Brien, whose address is given as Jamaica, as making a €2,000 donation to Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly.
The commission also records a €1,500 donation by Mr O’Brien in 2007 to Jim O’Callaghan, an unsuccessful Fianna Fáil candidate in the general election of that year.
