A member of Seanad Eireann was one of the biggest financial backers of Britain's Conservative Party during its doomed general election campaign this year.
Dr Edward Haughey, who was nominated to the Senate by the then Taoiseach Mr Albert Reynolds in 1994, donated £1 million sterling to the Tories' election efforts, via his company, Norbrook Laboratories.
The figure was exceeded only by the philanthropist Sir Paul Getty, who gave £5 million sterling, and the £2.45 million sterling donated by betting magnate Mr Stewart Wheeler.
The three men provided the bulk of the Conservatives' funding, which dwarfed that of the other parties. In the three-month election period, the Tories amassed £12.4 million sterling, compared with Labour's £5.3 million, and the Liberal Democrats' £840,000.
Dr Haughey's appointment to the Seanad was one of Mr Reynolds' last acts as Taoiseach, after the collapse of the Fianna Fail-Labour coalition in 1994. In 1996, the new senator donated £1 million towards a veterinary hospital at University College Dublin, to be named in honour of Mr Reynolds.
Based in Ballyedmond Castle, Rostrevor, Co Down, Dr Haughey also owns a large estate in Cumbria and has had a long-standing friendship with the Conservative Party.
In 1982 he was one of only three Northern Irish representatives at a meeting in Downing Street between the prime minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher and Britain's top entrepreneurs. In the most recent House of Commons register of members' interests, the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, includes helicopter trips provided by Dr Haughey under "gifts, benefits and hospitality".
Norbrook Laboratories was set up by Dr Haughey in 1969, and he owns all the shares. It is one of the world's largest veterinary pharmaceutical companies, producing antibiotics which it sells under its own brand in more than 100 countries.
It employs 1,000 people worldwide and has three manufacturing facilities: in Newry, Monaghan town, and Nairobi, Kenya. It also has marketing offices in South East Asia, Australia and North America.
The Conservatives' acting chairman, Mr David Prior, denied that election figures released by the Electoral Commission showed the party was reliant on just a few wealthy individuals. He said the party received £2.1 million from small donors.
Labour received large gifts from computer tycoon Sir Alan Sugar (£200,000 sterling), former Tory donor Mr Christopher Ondaatje (£100,000 - following an earlier £2 million gift), and steel magnate Mr Lakshmi Mittal (£125,000).
Well-known Labour backers included comedian Eddie Izzard (£10,000), and Victor Meldrew actor Richard Wilson (£6,500).
