Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Of course, the commercial value is not the value that Mr. Stone or the Minister would ascribe to the service the Minister describes and what he wants it to be but, rather, what it would cost him on the open market to obtain that particular service. We would prefer if we were here today talking about housing and health, for example, the issues that affect everybody's everyday lives and go to the core of the business we should be doing in this House today and every day. Those are the real issues that matter but this matters too. Standards matter. Accountability, ethics, transparency and full disclosure matter. I believe that standards and integrity matter to the Minister, too. However, today we know from the statement of Mr. Stone - it gives me no pleasure to say this - that the Minister broke the electoral rules on two occasions, that is, in 2016 and 2020. He has a second chance today to put this issue to bed once and for all. As we all know, third chances do not come along every day in politics. If he genuinely wants to make a clean breast of this, he needs to answer the questions I will put to him. I am pleased he has decided to take the advice of the Labour Party and to return to Mr. Stone elements of what are prohibited donations and to amend his statement to SIPO accordingly.

However, at the kernel of this is the fantasy that the donations made were made to Dublin Central Fine Gael and not personally to the Minister, the guy on the poster. He needs to address that fiction and fantasy; he needs to accept and acknowledge that these were donations made to him and that, insofar as we can establish, they did not comply with the law, as described. He has doubled down on these donations as donations made to the party, not to him as a candidate.

Let us look for a moment, if we can, at Mr. Stone's statement today on this assistance for a friend. He said, "The help given in 2020 was arranged through a member of ... Fine Gael ... in Dublin Central". This is important. I genuinely do not want to be dragging people unnecessarily into this. Who was the member? Was it the Minister's election agent? It is very important to establish that because, in electoral law, it is only the election agent who can legally authorise expenditure. Did Mr. Stone's donations and expenditure have the imprimaturof the Minister's election agent at any time? Is there a paper trail, which is required between a third party providing a service and the election agent? That is required in law.

If the donation was in fact made to Fine Gael in Dublin Central, I would be very annoyed if I were the second candidate in 2020. It seems she has not benefited from the assistance provided by Mr. Stone. How did the Minister's running mate benefit if indeed the donation was to Fine Gael in Dublin Central? If she did not benefit, this is really starting to look like what we believe it is: a personal donation made by a corporation that went undeclared. It is de facto a donation made to the Minister personally.

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