Sinn Féin has channelled hundreds of thousands of euros from its Dublin-based headquarters to the party’s organisation in Northern Ireland in recent years, the party’s audited accounts reveal.
Accounts published by the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) on Tuesday show that Sinn Féin received the largest income of any party in the Republic, taking in €5.5 million last year, of which €5.1 million was State funding.
The party had €2.7 million in cash in the bank in the Republic at the end of the year. The party’s financial structures are organised on a 26-county and six-county basis, a division which enabled it to accept a £3 million bequest from a deceased Englishman, William Hampton.
The party’s audited accounts show that last year the Dublin headquarters sent €124,000 to the “Six County administration” based in Belfast.
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However, the accounts of the Belfast-based organisation, submitted to the Electoral Commission, show the receipt of just £54,000 from the Dublin headquarters.
Asked about the apparent discrepancy, Sinn Féin said that as “an all-island party we are obliged to meet legal requirements that occasionally differ in both jurisdictions in respect of financial reporting. In this instance, the Electoral Commission and Sipo require spending to be identified under different account headings.”
When this was queried, the party said: “The funding received by the party in the North from the party in the South can be identified under different headings; e.g. ‘head office contribution’, ‘membership and affiliation’, ‘sundry income’ due to different reporting requirements.”
The party did not answer further queries, in particular why the northern party, which had the benefit of the massive Hampton bequests – which would have been prohibited by law in the Republic – needed funding from the South.
The transfers from South to North have been a feature of Sinn Féin’s accounts in recent years. Over the past six years, according to its annual accounts submitted to Sipo in Dublin, Sinn Féin has transferred €573,000 from its Dublin HQ to Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland.
However, Sinn Féin’s accounts registered with the Electoral Commission in the UK, shows the party receiving only less than £400,000 – leaving well over €100,000 unaccounted for by these figures.
The Sipo-registered accounts for all three big parties show them all in good financial health in 2021, the year after the general election. Sinn Fein (€2.7 million), Fine Gael (€3 million) and Fianna Fáil (€847,000) all have significant cash reserves in the bank, and all recorded a surplus of more than €1 million in the year 2021. Sinn Féin also have almost £500,000 in bank accounts in Northern Ireland.
The accounts also show the extent to which the parties are reliant on State funding, which makes up the great bulk of their income. In 2021, Sinn Fein received €5.1 million in State funding, while Fianna Fáil took €4.6 million, and Fine Gael €4.3 million.
