Cutting off foreign funding to the Northern parties - in truth to Sinn Féin - is likely to be quietly applauded, writes Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor
Sinn Féin chairman Mitchel McLaughlin was in disdainful mood yesterday after Northern Ireland Office Minister John Spellar announced that since February he was "minded" to ban Sinn Féin from fund-raising outside Ireland for party purposes inside Ireland.
To be strictly accurate Mr Spellar's announcement applies to all Northern parties and, with some potential tailoring of the legislation to meet the particular requirements of Northern Ireland, generally brings it in line with the British system.
But you would have to admire the effrontery of any British minister or official who with a straight face would deny that this is aimed at puncturing some of Sinn Féin's ambitions.
With one stroke of his pen Mr Spellar is primed to pick millions of pounds and euro in hitherto legitimate foreign currency from Sinn Féin's back pocket.
Which explains Mr McLaughlin's scornful response. Banning Sinn Féin from the airwaves didn't damage the party, he said. Denying Sinn Féin's four MPs funding that other parties receive at Westminster hadn't taken any of the wind from its sails.
Even the Northern Secretary Paul Murphy imposing a £120,000 penalty after the Independent Monitoring Commission ruled that the IRA was engaged in various forms of violence and nefarious activity wouldn't deflect Sinn Féin from its objectives, he added.
Mr McLaughlin was contemptuous of the British government's Dick Turpin antics, stating: "Just as 25 years of censorship failed to stop the Sinn Féin advance, so too will these attacks which are direct attacks on our electorate and the democratic process itself." That's the sort of tone that will stir the party faithful. And Mr McLaughlin is correct. This act won't harm Sinn Féin electoral aims.
Indeed, it may improve them.
It will add to the republican notion - sometimes feigned, sometimes genuine - of Sinn Féin being innocent victims of cynical enemies. It might even win the party extra votes in the local elections in the Republic and in the European elections in the North and South next month.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, and others can allege that Sinn Féin in any case is being partly funded from IRA robberies and other criminality. The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, in regularly denying such charges, has challenged Mr McDowell to "put up or shut up" by proving his claims.
This argument will run and run, but, irrespective of where the truth lies, neither individual nor organisation enjoys witnessing its coffers being so audaciously and legally plundered, as Mr Spellar was intent on doing to Sinn Féin from February.
Be sure though that the Southern parties, particularly Fianna Fáil, and the Northern parties, particularly the SDLP, will welcome this move - although they should have more wit than to publicly gloat about it.
Figures compiled by The Irish Times show that between 1997 and last year Sinn Féin raised about $5.5 million in the US alone. Some of that money was used to run Sinn Féin's US operation - it has an office in New York and regularly lobbies in Washington - but much of it would have been expended in Ireland.
Friends of Sinn Féin in the US in the six years from 1997 until 2002 raised $3.5 million for the party, according to figures from the US Department of Justice. According to Sinn Féin, the Friends of SF group doesn't actually repatriate money to the party in Ireland, but uses the money to pay Sinn Féin bills here and in the US.
In the first six months of 2003 Friends of Sinn Féin raised almost $600,000, while last year it is reported that a US tour by Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams raised $1.5 million for the party.
Compare this with the SDLP, which in 1997-2002 raised just short of $20,000 in the US. Over the same period the Ulster Unionist Party, which has a presence in Washington, raised just over $100,000.
Under Irish political fund-raising legislation parties can no longer raise finance abroad, but even when this was permitted no party - including Fianna Fáil, which has US cash-raising experience going back to Éamon de Valera's day - could compete with Sinn Féin.
In 1997 and 1998 Fianna Fáil brought home $75,000 for the party from America. Over the same two years Friends of Sinn Féin garnered $1.5 million.
When Gerry Adams comes to town, Friends of Sinn Féin have no difficulty selling hundreds of seats at $700 a plate. Big bucks. No wonder the SDLP and Fianna Fáil as well as Labour, which have much to fear from Sinn Féin, welcome this block on republican fund-raising.
Moreover, Sinn Féin has also found Canada, Australia and New Zealand fertile fund-raising grounds, especially in recent years. Sinn Féin did not provide figures for how much they raise internationally each year, but it seems reasonable to state that the party takes in about $1 million each year, if not more.
Sinn Féin can still raise funds abroad but that money must be spent abroad, unless the US and other international administrations impose further restrictions on fund-raising for Irish parties.
Mr Spellar indicated that in deference to the nationalist status of the SDLP he may allow it and other Northern parties to fund-raise throughout Ireland.
He also intimated that he would allow donations to be made confidentially, which again is not allowed in Britain.
There will be a consultation period until the end of June which would allow Sinn Féin to put its case for retaining the current situation. But Mr Spellar seems absolutely intent on ending the exemption whereby Sinn Féin can raise millions of pounds abroad in US, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and other foreign currency.