Fine Gael has been accused by Fianna Fβil of being caught in an act of "blatant hypocrisy" in seeking personal donations from business people.
Fianna Fβil Minister of State Mr Willie O'Dea said the party has been soliciting corporate donations, despite the claim by party leader Mr Michael Noonan that such donations were now banned.
However, a Fine Gael spokesman said yesterday there had been a distortion of the facts. He defended letters which the party sent to business people asking them to support the Fine Gael national draw.
He said the party is running a fund-raising draw this year, as it has done for several years. "Tickets are £50 each and there is a range of prizes. The principal purchasers of the tickets are the members and supporters of Fine Gael and almost 25,000 letters have been issued from party national office to them asking that they buy tickets in the draw."
In the course of the mailshot, he said, a number of letters were issued to executives of companies that had made donations to Fine Gael.
"It was pointed out in the letter that Fine Gael no longer accepts corporate donations and that if executives wished to purchase tickets they should do so personally and not with company funds."
He said it was also pointed out that Fine Gael's decision to limit individual donations to £1,000 in one year, which the party has applied to fund-raising, would also apply to the draw.
"The draw is proving successful. Its proceeds are being put in an election fund and the bulk of those who are buying tickets, as was the case in the past, are the ordinary members and supporters of Fine Gael who purchase single tickets. This was and is the intention of the draw and it is not directed at the corporate sector," he said.
According to an article in yesterday's Sunday Business Post, Fine Gael general secretary Mr Tom Curran wrote on party headed notepaper to company executives. "I am writing to you on a personal level, to offer you the opportunity of helping to fund democracy," he said in the letters.
Those contacted were asked to purchase books of six tickets, costing £250 each, which could be paid for by personal cheque, draft, cash, or credit card.
However, Mr O'Dea said Mr Noonan's announcement after he was made party leader that he was banning all corporate donations was only a "public-relations spin aimed at fooling the public".
"What is now clear from the begging letters sent out by the party's General Secretary is that so-called policy was a sham from the start."
He said letters were sent to business people at their business addresses seeking funding for Fine Gael. "They have been forced to admit, after today's revelations, that they sent these letters to previous corporate benefactors seeking donations."