Of all the parties in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin has by farthe biggest income. It is also the biggest spender, notwithstanding that in terms of votes and seats it is second in size to the Democratic Unionist Party.
The UK Electoral Commission has 14 British and Northern Ireland parties on its list whose gross income or total expenditure in 2013 was over £250,000.
Four are Northern Ireland parties – Sinn Féin, the DUP, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party.
Tot up all the income of the DUP, the SDLP and the UUP in the full year of 2013 and it comes to £1,153,445 – which is still less than the £1,161,163 that flowed into Sinn Féin’s Northern Ireland coffers. Sinn Féin in 2013 spent £1,122,753, which is just under £70,000 behind the combined £1,191,980 expenditure of its three main opponents in Northern Ireland.
In the 2011 Assembly elections the DUP won 38 seats with 198,436 votes compared to the 29 seats and 178,224 votes gained by Sinn Féin.
Not surprising, therefore, the DUP is next on the Northern Ireland list in terms of income and expenditure – but it is considerably behind Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin’s income is made up of donations of £651,545, mainly Assembly and Westminster grants or allowances of £259,444 and sundry income of £250,174.
Bulk of donations
The bulk of the donations, according to Sinn Féin’s finance department, is made up of salaries in excess of the average industrial wage of £500 per week that members paid back into the party. This amounted to £617,764 in 2013.
In the calendar year of 2013 the DUP had an income of £474,147 and spent £408,508, which ahead of this May’s Westminster elections left it with a decent surplus of £65,639.
But that is far below Sinn Féin’s incomings of £1.16 million and outgoings of £1.12 million, which resulted in the party enjoying a surplus of £38,410 in 2013.
Again in 2012, Sinn Féin’s income of £1,090,792 was considerably higher than its main Northern Ireland opponents. But that year its expenditure was £1,154,640, leaving it with a deficit of £63,868.
That was accounted for through an exceptional legal settlement of £80,000 that former Northern Ireland Water director Declan Gormley won against Sinn Féin.
Mr Gormley had been sacked as a director by former Sinn Féin regional development minister and Newry and Armagh MP Conor Murphy.
Mr Gormley successfully sued Sinn Féin for libel over press statements.
Sinn Féin is also a considerable employer in Northern Ireland. It directly employs 18 full-time staff, while its five MPs, 29 Assembly members and single MEP Martina Anderson employ 70 full-time staff on constituency work.
The SDLP was once the dominant nationalist party with the likes of John Hume able to attract huge support and donations from the US to supplement its income.
In 2013 its income was £360,483 and its expenditure was £370,917, resulting in a deficit of more than £10,000.
Its 2014 figures are yet to be published but there is hardly any reason to expect it will be facing into the May campaign with a healthy surplus in its election war chest.
But the poorest relation of the North’s four main parties is the UUP, which not a terribly long time ago was the principal unionist party. It took in £318,815 in 2013 but spent £412,555, leaving it with a big deficit of close to £94,000.
In the financial year 2013/14 Sinn Féin’s 29 Assembly members earned £1,654,000 in salaries. Regular MLAs earn £48,000 per annum.
Sinn Féin’s top earner was Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness who, the same as DUP First Minister Peter Robinson, is paid £120,000 per annum.
The party says its MLAs only take the average industrial wage of just under £26,000 or £500 per week, with the remainder going into the party.
Sinn Féin’s three Ministers earn £86,000 annually, with junior Minister Jennifer McCann on £60,000, while some members get other allowances for functions such as chairing Assembly committees.
Sinn Féin Assembly members receive a total £2.34 million in expenses covering office costs, travel and subsistence and other expenditure.
In addition Sinn Féin is entitled to about £46,000 annually to runs its whips’ office.
Special advisers
And based on Sinn Féin figures the party also receives £510,000 for payments to special advisers: three for Mr McGuinness at a cost of £238,000 and one each at a total cost of £272,000 for its three full Ministers and single junior Minister.
Again they take the average industrial wage with the balance donated to the party.
The party’s five MPs refuse to take their seats in the House of Commons and consequently don’t get paid.
They do, however, receive quite generous expenses to cover office and travel costs.
In the year 2013-2014, according to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the MPs received a total of £666,808 in these expenses.
Sinn Féin’s Northern Ireland MEP Martina Anderson is on a salary of just over €96,000 per annum and is entitled to expenses of almost €51,840. The euro/sterling conversion rate is poor at the moment and this translates into a salary of £70,000 and expenses of £37,680. Travels costs are reimbursed.
In November BBC's Spotlight programme reported that Sinn Féin Assembly members claimed nearly £700,000 in expenses from a company run by its finance managers Séamus Drumm and Sinead Walsh.
It said that over the past 10 years 36 Sinn Féin Assembly members claimed this money through Stormont expenses to pay Research Services Ireland.
Spotlight said it "was not able to find any evidence of research" carried out by the company.
Sinn Féin said the company was used exclusively for Assembly and constituency work.
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister called on the PSNI to investigate the Spotlight claims.
At the time the police said it was “scoping” as opposed to investigating the allegations.
Asked this week what stage the inquiry was at, a spokesman said: “Detectives from serious crime branch continue to scope allegations of potential criminality made in media reports in November 2014. No inference should be drawn from this.”
Sinn Féin MLA Raymond McCartney insisted there was “no impropriety” and that the party had “nothing to hide”.
