Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has criticised Fianna Fáil for exploiting Charities legislation to raise funds for their party – and has asked Joe O’Brien of the Greens to correct the record of the Dáil after the TD defended their government partner.
This week it was revealed that Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s party is running its €600,000 raffle with a licence reserved for charities.
A new law – introduced by Fianna Fáíl – restricts licences to run a lottery to charities and philanthropic causes, such as sports clubs and community groups. But the politicial parties have used a legal loophole in the law to run lucratuive draws.
Fianna Fáil has obtained permission from the courts for a lottery licence which enables them to charge €50 for a ticket. Fine Gael has amassed over €1m from its own mega draw – and Sinn Féin is in the money too after generating more than €200,000 from a fundraiser, according to the Independent. .
Speaking in the Dáil Wednesday, Peadar Tóibín said: “Fianna Fáil received more than €3.4 million from the State in 2020. Now we find out that Fianna Fáil is a holding itself out as a charity and exploiting a legal loophole to run a €600,000 lottery and charge €50 a ticket as opposed to €10 a ticket. This was a legal exception created for charities to help people in genuine need or for the betterment of society.
“It was to help groups working with homeless people, people with cancer and people with disabilities. It was to help people in real need. It was never intended for political parties. The Charities Regulator has stated that Political parties cannot be charities”.
The Aontú leader said that Green Party TD Joe O’Brien “gallantly jumped to his feet to defend the FF action but in doing misinformed the Dáil by saying that FF had not applied for their Draw licence under the guise of a charity”.
“Now as reported in the Irish Independent, the Fianna Fáil Minister who brought the Charities legislation through the Dáil is now selling €50 tickets for FF under this same legislation. You could not make up,” he said.
“Today I asked the Tánaiste if he would answer this question directly. Is Fianna Fáil a charity? Are FF wrong to use Charity Legislation to raise funds for themselves? The Green Party TD Joe O’Brien jumped to his feet to take the question and stated incorrectly that FF were not using the legislation specifically for Charities. This is incorrect. And I believe that Joe O’Brien should now correct the record of the Dáil. FF have questions to answer. Where is the integrity of preceding with this Draw when its clearly applied for under false pretences”.