THE FOUNDER of Libertas, Declan Ganley, has denied it is currently engaged in political fundraising despite what the organisation says on its website and recent media comment by him.
Mr Ganley, in an interview with The Irish Times, was asked why his website does not advise donors as to the laws that exist governing political donations. "Because we're not campaigning at the moment," he said.
Libertas campaigned for a No vote in the Lisbon referendum.
Mr Ganley said Libertas had not yet decided whether it would campaign in next year's European elections.
Meanwhile, it was conducting research and could use donations for this.
He said that during the referendum campaign the website advised potential donors of the law. He later forwarded an archive image of the website showing such details.
Irish law sets out thresholds on the amount a donor can give an organisation such as Libertas in a single year, and prohibits donations from non-Irish citizens or foreign corporate bodies.
Mr Ganley said if Libertas decided to campaign in the elections across the EU it would set up a structure to allow it to comply with differing EU electoral laws. Most states prohibit foreign funding of political campaigns.
Earlier this week Mr Ganley told reporters in Brussels that Libertas "was still actively fundraising in case it runs candidates in the European elections in several EU states".
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in July, Mr Ganley was reported as saying that he was "starting to raise £75 million (€92.8 million) from online donations to run candidates in all 12 of Britain's European Parliament constituencies, and in seats throughout the EU".
Yesterday the Libertas website said: "Libertas is relying on fund-raising and donations in order to keep campaigning; we genuinely welcome any support possible." It invited people to "get involved" by, among other steps, "making a donation to our campaign".
The website facilitates online payments and invites donors to send cheques payable to Libertas to its headquarters at Mr Ganley's home base in Tuam, Co Galway. The website gives details of an AIB account in Tuam to which electronic fund transfers are invited.
During the Lisbon Treaty referendum Libertas indicated it had a budget of €1.3 million.
Figures released after the vote showed it spent more on commercial advertising and billboards than all the political parties put together.
Under Irish law Libertas is not required to state how much it spent or where it got the money.
Mr Ganley was asked how accounts for The Libertas Institute Ltd could show no income and no expenditure for 2007 when it had hired two hotel rooms during the year and commissioned a truck on which a large billboard was mounted.
"That wasn't [paid for] bby Libertas. I don't know how that was paid," he said.
