Sacrifice the donor in order to save your career: Paschal Dohoe uses Mary Lou's tactics regarding benefactors

Paschal Donohoe claims that a friend of a businessman paid for his posters to be put up. This was Paschal's contribution to his party, and not to him.

Anyone who has been following the Special Criminal Court events over the past thirteen weeks will have seen the "former Sinn Féin Councillor" as the star witness in Gerry "The Monk" Hutch's prosecution for his infamous Regency Hotel murder by gangster David Byrne.

The trial began with troubling references to Sinn Féin appearing in evidence. However, the political parties resisted commenting on the ongoing case, not wanting to be seen. The case was close to its conclusion at the Paschal Donohoe poster palaver. Sinn Féin was driving on.

"Her declarations indicate that she received a personal donation in the amount of €1,000 from Jonathan Dowdall, a gangland criminal and Navan Road torturer. She is surrounded by members of her party who claim that it was a donation to her party. That means that Deputy McDonald must decide which one it was and amend her declarations to reflect the actions of Deputy Donohoe," he stated in the Dáil.

Apparently, any McDonald's colleague making this claim has retracted on the airwaves. The Taoiseach's Dáil statement released the RTÉ shackles that he had imposed on himself to cover the issue.

McDonald remains the only member of her party to not correct the record regarding the donation being made to her. "The donation was made in Dublin Central constituency. It was reported according to SIPO rules and regulations. It would have been used for legitimate political expenses, probably election expenses.

It is ironic that Dowdall's donation to Sinn Féin would not have been known about if it was given to McDonald. While donations to individual politicians exceeding €1,000 must be reported, donations to parties are only required to be disclosed if they exceed €1,500.

His friend Michael Stone paid for the posters to be erected during the 2016 and 2020 general elections. He did this either through his company, Designer Group, or out of his own pocket. One of those contributions was indeed greater than the limits for corporate donations.

This is a violation of the legislation by the Public Expenditure Ministry. Donohoe claims that the donations were given to Fine Gael in Dublin Central. However, he was clearly the beneficiary. He also admitted a breach in not declaring these expenses as expenses during both elections.

Donohoe will now be referred to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO), the State ethics watchdog. SIPO will examine Donohoe's breaches and determine if there were other violations. SIPO will decide if these were donations to the party or to the politician and if they add up.

The 2020 general election guidelines are informative. They state that "it is the candidate who must comply with the Act regarding recording and disclosing donations".

Stone was again dropped after he became too heavy. He was too heavy to take the fall for the donations scandal and resigned from two State boards. Donohoe doesn't have to disown him, but the scalp helped ease the pressure on his minister. This is politics.