Rec. No. Date Brief Description No. of Pages File ref. Decision: Grant/ Basis of refusal: Part Grant/ Refuse Section of Act Reason for decision 1 08/05/2019 Email from Irish Freedom Party 6 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18 2 17/05/2019 Emails with Irish Freedom Party 2 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 3 29/05/2019 Email from Irish Freedom Party 3 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 4 29/05/2019 Payments printout attached to email of 29/5/19 from Irish Freedom Party S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside scope; personal information (email address) S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside scope; personal information (email addresses/phone number) S. 36(1)(b) Financial information personal donations to IFP 5 30/05/2019 Email to Irish Freedom Party 4 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 6 18/10/2019 Email to Irish Freedom Party 4 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 7 04/11/2019 Email from Irish Freedom Party 8 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 8 12/12/2019 Email to Irish Freedom Party 11 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant 12 Irish Freedom Party Refuse Schedule Parts of record outside scope S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside scope; personal information (email addresses/phone number) S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside scope; personal information (email addresses/phone S. 18(1) & 37(1) number) Parts of record outside scope; personal information (email addresses/phone S. 18, 30, 32 & number) Could prejudice 37(1) effectiveness of the Commission’s examinations/investigation of offences, etc. (s. 30); personal information (email address) (s. 37) Public Interest Considerations (for and against release) n/a Record Edited/ Identify deletions Part or all of pages 1, 2, 3, 5 &6 Parts of pages 1 &2 Privacy of the person outweighs public interest in release Privacy of the persons Parts of pages 1, outweighs public 2&3 interest in release Could reasonably be expected to result in a material financial loss Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release Public interest in release outweighed by public interest in ensuring examinations are carried out fairly and effectively (s. 30); Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release (s. 37) n/a Parts of pages 1 4 Parts of pages 1 4 Parts of pages 1 8 Parts of pages 1 10 Page 1 of 3 Rec. No. Date Brief Description No. of Pages File ref. Decision: Grant/ Basis of refusal: Part Grant/ Refuse Section of Act Reason for decision Public Interest Considerations (for and against release) Record Edited/ Identify deletions 9 06/05/2020 Email to Irish Freedom Party 11 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18, 30, 32 & 37(1) Could prejudice effectiveness of the Commission’s examinations/investigation of offences, etc. (s. 30); personal information (email address) (s. 37) Public interest in Parts of pages 1 release outweighed by 11 public interest in ensuring examinations are carried out fairly and effectively (s. 30); Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release (s. 37) 10 10/06/2020 Emails with Irish Freedom Party 21 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18, 30, 32 & 37(1) Could prejudice effectiveness of the Commission’s examinations/investigation of offences, etc. (s. 30); personal information (email address) (s. 37) Public interest in Parts of pages 1 release outweighed by 21 public interest in ensuring examinations are carried out fairly and effectively (s. 30); Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release (s. 37) 11 10/06/2020 Documents attached to email of 10/6/20 from Irish Freedom Party 4 Irish Freedom Party Refuse S. 30, 32 & 37(1) Could prejudice effectiveness of the Commission’s examinations/investigation of offences, etc. (s. 30); personal information (email address) (s. 37) 12 11/06/2020 Letter from Irish Freedom Party notifying anonymous donation 1 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside Privacy of the person scope; personal information outweighs public (email address) interest in release Schedule Public interest in n/a release outweighed by public interest in ensuring examinations are carried out fairly and effectively (s. 30); Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release (s. 37) Address Page 2 of 3 Rec. No. Date Brief Description 13 11/06/2020 Copy of cheque forwarded with letter of notification by Irish Freedom Party 14 12/06/2020 Emails with Irish Freedom Party 15 16/06/2020 Letter to Irish Freedom Party ack of notification of anonymous donation No. of Pages File ref. 1 Irish Freedom Party Decision: Grant/ Basis of refusal: Part Grant/ Refuse Section of Act Reason for decision Public Interest Considerations (for and against release) Refuse S. 36(1)(b) 16 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18, 30, 32 & 37(1) 1 Irish Freedom Party Part-grant S. 18(1) & 37(1) Parts of record outside Privacy of the person scope; personal information outweighs public (email address) interest in release Schedule Record Edited/ Identify deletions Financial information Could reasonably be n/a expected to result in a material financial loss Could prejudice Public interest in Parts of pages 1 effectiveness of the release outweighed by 16 Commission’s public interest in examinations/investigation ensuring examinations of offences, etc. (s. 30); are carried out fairly personal information (email and effectively (s. 30); address) (s. 37) Privacy of the persons outweighs public interest in release (s. 37) Address Page 3 of 3 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Wednesday 8 May 2019 10:57 Michael Leahy Re: Attn Mr Ray Butler, Standards Commission Secretariat. Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email below of 11 April 2019 regarding the third parties provisions of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended (the Act). 2 The Commission has been made aware that a donation of more than €100 has recently been made to the Irexit Freedom Party. Documentation showing that a donation of more than €100 was made to the Party recently by an individual and that the donation was acknowledged to the person by the Party on the same date. 3 Authority of the Commission to make inquiries and request/direct production of documents Please note that it is open to the Commission under section 4(4) of the Act to “…make such inquiries as it considers appropriate and may require any person to furnish any information, document or thing in the possession or procurement of the person which the Commission may require for the purposes of its duties under this Act. Section 4(4A) provides: “Where a person fails to comply with a requirement made of him or her under subsection (4) within such time as the Standards in Public Office Commission considers reasonable, it may direct the person to furnish it with such information, document or thing specified in the direction within such period of time mentioned in the direction and, if the person fails to comply with the direction within that period, the person commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class D fine.” Queries requiring response Please respond to the following questions: 1. Can you confirm whether "Irexit Freedom to Prosper/the Irish Freedom Party” has received a donation or donations since its establishment exceeding the value of €100? 2. If it has received such a donation or donations, please provide details of such donations, including amounts and dates on which donations were received. 3. Based on the information provided in respect of prohibited donations, please confirm whether, in your view, "Irexit Freedom to Prosper/the Irish Freedom Party” has received any prohibited donation or donations? If so, please provide details of same and how these have been/will be dealt with. 4. Please provide a copy of bank statements for any account opened for or used by "Irexit Freedom to Prosper/the Irish Freedom Party” since its establishment. You are welcome to provide any other observations regarding this matter, which you consider appropriate. Please reply to the above queries as soon as possible and no later than 22 May 2019. If you have any queries, please phone me at 01-6395713 or my colleague, Ray Butler, at 01-6395707, or reply to this email. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat 01-6395713 Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  sipo@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 4 5 6 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Friday 17 May 2019 16:41 Michael Leahy Re: Irish Freedom Party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email and attachment, the contents of which have been noted. Your request to extend the deadline for final reply to 29 May 2019 is accepted. I must point out that the obligations on a third party under the Electoral Act apply from the date on which a donation for political purposes in excess of €100 has been received and must be complied with. These obligations include registration with the Commission as a third party, but also include complying with the provisions in the Electoral Act regarding the acceptance of donations and the requirement to furnish a Certificate of Monetary Donations (CMD) and a bank statement in regard to the political donations account. I would be grateful if you would take these observations into account in your final reply, which I look forward to receiving no later than 29 May 2019. Kind regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat 01-6395713 Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  sipo@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Michael Leahy Sent: 17 May 2019 09:49 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: Irish Freedom Party 1 Dear Mr McKevitt, I refer to yours of the 8th instant. Such funds as we have received by computer solicitation, (and 5 of these were in excess of €100) will be fully disclosed in the accounts of the party. I can also confirm that none of these contributions constitute a prohibited donation. I would appreciate your forbearance on this matter, as an extra few days until after the elections are complete would, I think, enable me to give a more comprehensive response. yours sincerely, Michael Leahy. 2 16/07/2020 Mail - info@sipo.ie Irish Freedom Party Wed 29/05/2019 16:10 Third Parties To: SIPO Shared Mailbox ; Cc:'Hermann Kelly' < >; 'Dolores Cahill' < >;  3 attachments (711 KB) application for third pary status ...pdf; P 2 Iris Oifigiul 21 May 2019.pdf; PAYMENTS RECEIVED PRINTOUT.pdf; Attn Mr. Brian McKevitt. Irish Freedom Party, Kandoy House, Fairview Strand, Dublin 3. 29 May 2019. Dear Mr McKevi , I refer to previous correspondence and having consulted with our president, Mr. Hermann Kelly and our Chairperson, Professor Dolores Cahill, I now wish to address issues raised by you as follows. . I also enclose here with a list of all contribu ons received since decision was made to form a party on 2nd of February 2019. The contribu ons in excess of €100 are at the top of the list. All contribu ons were made by Irish credit cards. Names have obviously been deleted from these lists. https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/info@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 1/3 16/07/2020 Mail - info@sipo.ie There were four specific items which you asked us to address in your memo of 2cnd May and I respond as follows: 1.We have received dona ons in excess of €100 since our founda on on 2cnd Feb 2019. I have checked with Mr Hermann Kelly and no such dona ons were received before 2cnd February 2019. 2. A list of such dona ons together with dates received is a ached. 3.I confirm that none of the dona ons received were prohibited in that they did not come from foreign donors as far as we can determine and no dona on was more than €1,000. 4. I have requested a bank statement and will forward it to you when I receive it. There is one area in which you may be able to help me. As you will see from the a ached list, we received one specific dona on of €101. I assume this dona on was sent mischievously and I assume it was no fied to you by the par es who sent it to us with a view to pu ng us in a situa on where we would have a legal requirement to register as a 3rd party. There is a possibility that it may also be a prohibited dona on as it may be that the par es who sent it to us for obviously mischievous purposes took care to register abroad in order again to make it appear as if we are ac ng outside of the legisla on. We would be obliged therefore if you could confirm to us who sent us this dona on. Presumably they told you when they no fied you of having given it to us, as I assume this is the dona on to which you refer when you indicated that it had come to your no ce that we had received a dona on in excess of €100.00 I trust you will find the above a sa sfactory response to your previous correspondence, yours sincerely, Michael Leahy, Hermann Kelly, Dolores Cahill. Execu ve members, the Irish Freedom Party, poli cal party in process of forma on. Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy. Architect and Planner https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/info@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 3/3 31/05/2019 Mail - sipo@sipo.ie Re: Irish Freedom Party SIPO Shared Mailbox Thu 30/05/2019 17:15 To: Cc:'Hermann Kelly' ; 'Dolores Cahill' ; Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted. We will consider your observa ons further and come back to you. We will revert to you in regard to this ma er as soon as possible. Regards, Brian McKevi Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97 * sipo@sipo.ie ( (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 29 May 2019 16:10 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Cc: 'Hermann Kelly'; 'Dolores Cahill' Subject: Irish Freedom Party Attn Mr. Brian McKevitt. https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/sipo@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 1/4 31/05/2019 Mail - sipo@sipo.ie Irish Freedom Party, Kandoy House, Fairview Strand, Dublin 3. 29 May 2019. Dear Mr McKevi , I refer to previous correspondence and having consulted with our president, Mr. Hermann Kelly and our Chairperson, Professor Dolores Cahill, I now wish to address issues raised by you as follows. I also enclose here with a list of all contribu ons received since decision was made to form a party on 2nd of February 2019. The contribu ons in excess of €100 are at the top of the list. All contribu ons were made by Irish credit cards. Names have obviously been deleted from these lists. https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/sipo@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 2/4 31/05/2019 Mail - sipo@sipo.ie There were four specific items which you asked us to address in your memo of 2cnd May and I respond as follows: 1.We have received dona ons in excess of €100 since our founda on on 2cnd Feb 2019. I have checked with Mr Hermann Kelly and no such dona ons were received before 2cnd February 2019. 2. A list of such dona ons together with dates received is a ached. 3.I confirm that none of the dona ons received were prohibited in that they did not come from foreign donors as far as we can determine and no dona on was more than €1,000. 4. I have requested a bank statement and will forward it to you when I receive it. There is one area in which you may be able to help me. As you will see from the a ached list, we received one specific dona on of €101. I assume this dona on was sent mischievously and https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/sipo@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 3/4 31/05/2019 Mail - sipo@sipo.ie I assume it was no fied to you by the par es who sent it to us with a view to pu ng us in a situa on where we would have a legal requirement to register as a 3rd party. There is a possibility that it may also be a prohibited dona on as it may be that the par es who sent it to us for obviously mischievous purposes took care to register abroad in order again to make it appear as if we are ac ng outside of the legisla on. We would be obliged therefore if you could confirm to us who sent us this dona on. Presumably they told you when they no fied you of having given it to us, as I assume this is the dona on to which you refer when you indicated that it had come to your no ce that we had received a dona on in excess of €100.00 I trust you will find the above a sa sfactory response to your previous correspondence, yours sincerely, Michael Leahy, Hermann Kelly, Dolores Cahill. Execu ve members, the Irish Freedom Party, poli cal party in process of forma on. Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy. Architect and Planner . https://webmail.ombudsman.ie/owa/sipo@sipo.ie/?offline=disabled#path=/mail/search/rp 4/4 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:      An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf 2 In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 4 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: Monday 4 November 2019 10:24 SIPO Shared Mailbox RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, you can scarce imagine my pleasant surprise at receiving your letter of 18th October in response to, and some 5 months after, mine of 30th of May. I note that your letter is dated after 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and I trust that, though you seek a response 2 weeks after that Friday, that you will exercise your usual forbearance and accept this response 2 weeks after the following Monday. The following are the main issues which remain of interest to you: 2. I have checked the electoral Act 1997 online and note that, under Section 23, the maximum anonymous donation which may be accepted is indicated at £100 rather than €100. This equates to €128 and I assume that this is now the relevant threshold. (You might confirm). The method that we have for aggregating donations of less than €128 online, in order to ensure that we do not receive in excess of €128 in any calendar year anonymously, is that of aggregating credit card numbers. Donors also generally give their names. It would, however, appear to me that there is no similar method of ensuring that anonymous donors of cash at, for example, public meetings do not aggregate their contributions to an amount in excess of €128 in any calendar year. This loophole could represent a threat to the stability of our political system and perhaps it is something that your organisation should bring to the attention of the relevant authorities. I am in a position to confirm that from 2nd February we have received one anonymous donation which aggregated to over 100 or 128 euros. It amounted to €140 in two payments. We will endeavour to return the second of these payments via the online portal to ensure that this aggregated donation reduces to below the relevant amount. You will of course be aware of the €101 anonymous donation to which I referred in my last correspondence with you. I assume you are aware of the identity of the person who made this donation, as I assume it was made for entirely mischievous purposes and then notified to you. It also seems likely that it came from a foreign address in order, as I previously indicated, to make it appear that we were in breach of government guidelines. 1 Can you please now confirm whether you know the identity of this anonymous donor, whether this anonymous donor is located abroad, and whether you will confirm his name so that we can refund his money to him? Alternatively, you might advise how we should deal with this money. A charitable donation to the nearest poorbox perhaps? Even though as outlined above this contribution seems to be below the threshold, we would not wish to keep money which was so obviously intended for nefarious purpose. I take it that the requirement that we hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of €128, or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of €128 euros in any calendar year. Sincerely Michael Leahy, Finance Officer Hermann Kelly, President Professor Dolores Cahill, Chairperson Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 To: Subject: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:   An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; 5    A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had 7 provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 8 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Thursday 12 December 2019 17:09 Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email of 4 November 2019 below. Anonymous donation With regard to the anonymous donation of €101 to which you refer, the onus is on the person accepting the donation to make whatever enquiries are necessary and to obtain any corroborating evidence that may be required in order to be satisfied that he/she is not precluded from accepting the donation. If it is not possible to establish the identity of the donor the donation should as outlined above be remitted to the Standards Commission. Please indicate the steps you have taken to comply with these requirements in respect of this donation. You also say that you take it that the requirement that you hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of [€100], or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of [€100] euros in any calendar year. Please note that, as previously outlined, “It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means.” Accordingly, you should hold the name and address of any person who makes an online contribution of any amount. 2 Please provide a reply no later than 8 January 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 04 November 2019 12:57 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email reply this morning, the contents of which have been noted. In regard to Item 2, I should point out that section 8 of the Electoral (Amendment)(Political Funding) Act 2012 amended section 23(1) of the Electoral Act 1997 (as amended by section 49(c) of the Act of 2001), to provide that an anonymous donation in excess of €100 cannot be accepted by, inter alia, a third party (see text of section below). The limit on an anonymous donation is therefore €100 and not £100. We will consider the remainder of your email and will revert to you. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 3 From: Sent: 04 November 2019 10:24 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, you can scarce imagine my pleasant surprise at receiving your letter of 18th October in response to, and some 5 months after, mine of 30th of May. I note that your letter is dated after 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and I trust that, though you seek a response 2 weeks after that Friday, that you will exercise your usual forbearance and accept this response 2 weeks after the following Monday. The following are the main issues which remain of interest to you: 2. I have checked the electoral Act 1997 online and note that, under Section 23, the maximum anonymous donation which may be accepted is indicated at £100 rather than €100. This equates to €128 and I assume that this is now the relevant threshold. (You might confirm). The method that we have for aggregating donations of less than €128 online, in order to ensure that we do not receive in excess of €128 in any calendar year anonymously, is that of aggregating credit card numbers. Donors also generally give their names. It would, however, appear to me that there is no similar method of ensuring that anonymous donors of cash at, for example, public meetings do not aggregate their contributions to an amount in excess of €128 in any calendar year. This loophole could represent a threat to the stability of our political system and perhaps it is something that your organisation should bring to the attention of the relevant authorities. You will of course be aware of the €101 anonymous donation to which I referred in my last correspondence with you. I assume you are aware of the identity of the person who made this donation, as I assume it was made for entirely mischievous purposes and then notified to you. It also seems likely that it came from a foreign address in order, as I previously indicated, to make it appear that we were in breach of government guidelines. Can you please now confirm whether you know the identity of this anonymous donor, whether this anonymous donor is located abroad, and whether you will confirm his name 4 so that we can refund his money to him? Alternatively, you might advise how we should deal with this money. A charitable donation to the nearest poorbox perhaps? Even though as outlined above this contribution seems to be below the threshold, we would not wish to keep money which was so obviously intended for nefarious purpose. I take it that the requirement that we hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of €128, or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of €128 euros in any calendar year. Sincerely Michael Leahy, Finance Officer Hermann Kelly, President Professor Dolores Cahill, Chairperson Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 To: Subject: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:    An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is 8   accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. 10 Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 11 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Wednesday 6 May 2020 11:23 Categories: Filed Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer to my email below of 12 December 2019 concerning donations to the Irish Freedom Party. The Commission has not received a reply from you. Please respond to the outstanding issues as soon as possible and no later than 20 May 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 12 December 2019 17:09 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email of 4 November 2019 below. Anonymous donation With regard to the anonymous donation of €101 to which you refer, the onus is on the person accepting the donation to make whatever enquiries are necessary and to obtain any corroborating evidence that may be required in order to be satisfied that he/she is not precluded from accepting the donation. If it is not possible to establish the identity of the donor the donation should as outlined above be remitted to the Standards Commission. Please indicate the steps you have taken to comply with these requirements in respect of this donation. You also say that you take it that the requirement that you hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of [€100], or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of [€100] euros in any calendar year. Please note that, as previously outlined, “It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means.” Accordingly, you should hold the name and address of any person who makes an online contribution of any amount. Please provide a reply no later than 8 January 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 04 November 2019 12:57 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email reply this morning, the contents of which have been noted. 3 In regard to Item 2, I should point out that section 8 of the Electoral (Amendment)(Political Funding) Act 2012 amended section 23(1) of the Electoral Act 1997 (as amended by section 49(c) of the Act of 2001), to provide that an anonymous donation in excess of €100 cannot be accepted by, inter alia, a third party (see text of section below). The limit on an anonymous donation is therefore €100 and not £100. We will consider the remainder of your email and will revert to you. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 04 November 2019 10:24 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, you can scarce imagine my pleasant surprise at receiving your letter of 18th October in response to, and some 5 months after, mine of 30th of May. I note that your letter is dated after 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and I trust that, though you seek a response 2 weeks after that Friday, that you will exercise your usual forbearance and accept this response 2 weeks after the following Monday. The following are the main issues which remain of interest to you: 2. I have checked the electoral Act 1997 online and note that, under Section 23, the maximum anonymous donation which may be accepted is indicated at £100 rather than €100. This equates to €128 and I assume that this is now the relevant threshold. (You might confirm). The method that we have for aggregating donations of less than €128 online, in order to ensure that we do not receive in excess of €128 in any calendar year anonymously, is that of aggregating credit card numbers. Donors also generally give their names. 4 It would, however, appear to me that there is no similar method of ensuring that anonymous donors of cash at, for example, public meetings do not aggregate their contributions to an amount in excess of €128 in any calendar year. This loophole could represent a threat to the stability of our political system and perhaps it is something that your organisation should bring to the attention of the relevant authorities. You will of course be aware of the €101 anonymous donation to which I referred in my last correspondence with you. I assume you are aware of the identity of the person who made this donation, as I assume it was made for entirely mischievous purposes and then notified to you. It also seems likely that it came from a foreign address in order, as I previously indicated, to make it appear that we were in breach of government guidelines. Can you please now confirm whether you know the identity of this anonymous donor, whether this anonymous donor is located abroad, and whether you will confirm his name so that we can refund his money to him? Alternatively, you might advise how we should deal with this money. A charitable donation to the nearest poorbox perhaps? Even though as outlined above this contribution seems to be below the threshold, we would not wish to keep money which was so obviously intended for nefarious purpose. I take it that the requirement that we hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of €128, or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of €128 euros in any calendar year. Sincerely Michael Leahy, Finance Officer Hermann Kelly, President Professor Dolores Cahill, Chairperson Irish Freedom Party. 7 From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 To: Subject: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:      An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 11 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: Attachments: Wednesday 10 June 2020 15:22 SIPO Shared Mailbox RE: Irish Freedom Party SIPO response re query on donations.pdf Dear Mr McKevitt, I respond to yours of 8th inst. as follows. Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy, on behalf of the Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Monday 8 June 2020 13:20 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email of 29 May 2020 below, the contents of which have been noted. In regard to the amount of €101 which you indicated you will send to the Commission, this will be acknowledged to you when it is received. The Department of Finance has informed the Commission that the amount, when received, should be forwarded to that Department. Please note under section 4(4) of the Electoral Act 1997, the Commission may make such inquiries as it considers appropriate and may require any person to furnish any information, document or thing in the possession or procurement of the person which the Commission may require for the purposes of its duties under the Electoral Act. In the event the Commission fails to receive a response to the above by the above date, it has the power to direct a person to furnish it with such information, document or thing in accordance with the provisions of Section 4(4A) of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 29 May 2020 17:02 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr. McKevitt, Contribution of €101. I will forward a cheque in your favour in the amount of €101.There is however little luck attaching to something sent for so obvioiusly mischievous a purpose, so you may have a care as to how you deal with it! 2 Michael Leahy For The Irish Freedom Party From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 29 May 2020 16:02 To: Cc: 'Hermann Kelly' ; 'Dolores Cahill' Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email below of 20 May 2020. I will respond to each of the issues in turn. 3 Anonymous donation of €101. You indicate that you propose forwarding a cheque for this amount. Please formally notify the Commission of receipt of the anonymous donation and send this along with a cheque, payable to the Standards in Public Office Commission, for the full amount, to the attention of: Ms Sherry Perreault Head of Ethics and Lobbying Regulation Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace Dublin 2 D02 W773 The Commission will then lay that notification before each House of the Oireachtas. Please ensure that the notification and cheque are submitted to the Commission no later than 12 June 2020. Kind regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat 4 Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 20 May 2020 11:25 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Cc: 'Hermann Kelly'; 'Dolores Cahill' Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr. McKevitt, I refer to mine of 4 November 2019 and yours of 12 December 2019 and subsequent correspondence between us of 6th of May 2020 where it was agreed that I respond to the issues raised before the 20th of May of this year. I deal with the issues raised as follows: Anonymous donation of €101. I propose forwarding a cheque to you for this amount. When you confirm that the procedure outlined by me in respect of the above two matters is in order, I will do so. In regard to online contributions, the system we have includes a "fingerprint" for each contributor enabling us to aggregate donations. 5 Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy On behalf of the Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Wednesday 6 May 2020 17:36 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email below, the contents of which have been noted. I look forward to receiving your reply. Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 06 May 2020 16:59 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, 6 I note yours of 6th May. Your missive 12th of December came on the same day as another missive from your office informing me of your change of address. Your second missive arrived after close of business, and it may be that when I checked my emails on the following morning I got it confused with the earlier message, hence my non-reply. As requested I will reply before 20th May. M Leahy, Irish Freedom Party From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Wednesday 6 May 2020 11:23 To Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer to my email below of 12 December 2019 concerning donations to the Irish Freedom Party. The Commission has not received a reply from you. Please respond to the outstanding issues as soon as possible and no later than 20 May 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 7 From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 12 December 2019 17:09 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email of 4 November 2019 below. 9 Anonymous donation With regard to the anonymous donation of €101 to which you refer, the onus is on the person accepting the donation to make whatever enquiries are necessary and to obtain any corroborating evidence that may be required in order to be satisfied that he/she is not precluded from accepting the donation. If it is not possible to establish the identity of the donor the donation should as outlined above be remitted to the Standards Commission. Please indicate the steps you have taken to comply with these requirements in respect of this donation. You also say that you take it that the requirement that you hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of [€100], or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of [€100] euros in any calendar year. Please note that, as previously outlined, “It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means.” Accordingly, you should hold the name and address of any person who makes an online contribution of any amount. Please provide a reply no later than 8 January 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie 10 Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 04 November 2019 12:57 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email reply this morning, the contents of which have been noted. In regard to Item 2, I should point out that section 8 of the Electoral (Amendment)(Political Funding) Act 2012 amended section 23(1) of the Electoral Act 1997 (as amended by section 49(c) of the Act of 2001), to provide that an anonymous donation in excess of €100 cannot be accepted by, inter alia, a third party (see text of section below). The limit on an anonymous donation is therefore €100 and not £100. We will consider the remainder of your email and will revert to you. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat 11 Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 04 November 2019 10:24 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, you can scarce imagine my pleasant surprise at receiving your letter of 18th October in response to, and some 5 months after, mine of 30th of May. I note that your letter is dated after 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and I trust that, though you seek a response 2 weeks after that Friday, that you will exercise your usual forbearance and accept this response 2 weeks after the following Monday. The following are the main issues which remain of interest to you: 2. I have checked the electoral Act 1997 online and note that, under Section 23, the maximum anonymous donation which may be accepted is indicated at £100 rather than €100. This equates to €128 and I assume that this is now the relevant threshold. (You might confirm). The method that we have for aggregating donations of less than €128 online, in order to ensure that we do not receive in excess of €128 in any calendar year anonymously, is that of aggregating credit card numbers. Donors also generally give their names. It would, however, appear to me that there is no similar method of ensuring that anonymous donors of cash at, for example, public meetings do not aggregate their contributions to an 12 amount in excess of €128 in any calendar year. This loophole could represent a threat to the stability of our political system and perhaps it is something that your organisation should bring to the attention of the relevant authorities. You will of course be aware of the €101 anonymous donation to which I referred in my last correspondence with you. I assume you are aware of the identity of the person who made this donation, as I assume it was made for entirely mischievous purposes and then notified to you. It also seems likely that it came from a foreign address in order, as I previously indicated, to make it appear that we were in breach of government guidelines. Can you please now confirm whether you know the identity of this anonymous donor, whether this anonymous donor is located abroad, and whether you will confirm his name so that we can refund his money to him? Alternatively, you might advise how we should deal with this money. A charitable donation to the nearest poorbox perhaps? Even though as outlined above this contribution seems to be below the threshold, we would not wish to keep money which was so obviously intended for nefarious purpose. I take it that the requirement that we hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of €128, or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of €128 euros in any calendar year. Sincerely Michael Leahy, Finance Officer Hermann Kelly, President Professor Dolores Cahill, Chairperson Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 To: Subject: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:      An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting 18 donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 21 Brian McKevitt From: Sent: To: Subject: SIPO Shared Mailbox Friday 12 June 2020 15:40 Re: Irish Freedom Party Mr Leahy, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 10 June 2020 15:21 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party Dear Mr McKevitt, I respond to yours of 8th inst. as follows. 1 . Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy, on behalf of the Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Monday 8 June 2020 13:20 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email of 29 May 2020 below, the contents of which have been noted. In regard to the amount of €101 which you indicated you will send to the Commission, this will be acknowledged to you when it is received. The Department of Finance has informed the Commission that the amount, when received, should be forwarded to that Department. Please note under section 4(4) of the Electoral Act 1997, the Commission may make such inquiries as it considers appropriate and may require any person to furnish any information, document or thing in the possession or procurement of the person which the Commission may require for the purposes of its duties under the Electoral Act. In the event the Commission fails to receive a response to the above by the above date, it has the power to direct a person to furnish it with such information, document or thing in accordance with the provisions of Section 4(4A) of the Electoral Act 1997, as amended. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat 2 Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 29 May 2020 17:02 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr. McKevitt, Contribution of €101. I will forward a cheque in your favour in the amount of €101.There is however little luck attaching to something sent for so obvioiusly mischievous a purpose, so you may have a care as to how you deal with it! Michael Leahy For The Irish Freedom Party From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 29 May 2020 16:02 To Cc: 'Hermann Kelly' ; 'Dolores Cahill' Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email below of 20 May 2020. I will respond to each of the issues in turn. Anonymous donation of €101. You indicate that you propose forwarding a cheque for this amount. Please formally notify the Commission of receipt of the anonymous donation and send this along with a cheque, payable to the Standards in Public Office Commission, for the full amount, to the attention of: Ms Sherry Perreault Head of Ethics and Lobbying Regulation Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace Dublin 2 D02 W773 The Commission will then lay that notification before each House of the Oireachtas. Please ensure that the notification and cheque are submitted to the Commission no later than 12 June 2020. Kind regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From Sent: 20 May 2020 11:25 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Cc: 'Hermann Kelly'; 'Dolores Cahill' Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr. McKevitt, I refer to mine of 4 November 2019 and yours of 12 December 2019 and subsequent correspondence between us of 6th of May 2020 where it was agreed that I respond to the issues raised before the 20th of May of this year. I deal with the issues raised as follows: i Anonymous donation of €101. I propose forwarding a cheque to you for this amount. When you confirm that the procedure outlined by me in respect of the above two matters is in order, I will do so. In regard to online contributions, the system we have includes a "fingerprint" for each contributor enabling us to aggregate donations. Yours sincerely, Michael Leahy On behalf of the Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Wednesday 6 May 2020 17:36 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email below, the contents of which have been noted. I look forward to receiving your reply. Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 06 May 2020 16:59 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party 5 Dear Mr McKevitt, I note yours of 6th May. Your missive 12th of December came on the same day as another missive from your office informing me of your change of address. Your second missive arrived after close of business, and it may be that when I checked my emails on the following morning I got it confused with the earlier message, hence my non-reply. As requested I will reply before 20th May. M Leahy, Irish Freedom Party From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Wednesday 6 May 2020 11:23 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer to my email below of 12 December 2019 concerning donations to the Irish Freedom Party. The Commission has not received a reply from you. Please respond to the outstanding issues as soon as possible and no later than 20 May 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Standards in Public Office Commission 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 D02 W773  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 12 December 2019 17:09 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, I refer again to your email of 4 November 2019 below. Anonymous donation 7 With regard to the anonymous donation of €101 to which you refer, the onus is on the person accepting the donation to make whatever enquiries are necessary and to obtain any corroborating evidence that may be required in order to be satisfied that he/she is not precluded from accepting the donation. If it is not possible to establish the identity of the donor the donation should as outlined above be remitted to the Standards Commission. Please indicate the steps you have taken to comply with these requirements in respect of this donation. You also say that you take it that the requirement that you hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of [€100], or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of [€100] euros in any calendar year. Please note that, as previously outlined, “It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means.” Accordingly, you should hold the name and address of any person who makes an online contribution of any amount. Please provide a reply no later than 8 January 2020. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: 04 November 2019 12:57 To: Subject: Re: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr Leahy, Thank you for your email reply this morning, the contents of which have been noted. In regard to Item 2, I should point out that section 8 of the Electoral (Amendment)(Political Funding) Act 2012 amended section 23(1) of the Electoral Act 1997 (as amended by section 49(c) of the Act of 2001), to 8 provide that an anonymous donation in excess of €100 cannot be accepted by, inter alia, a third party (see text of section below). The limit on an anonymous donation is therefore €100 and not £100. We will consider the remainder of your email and will revert to you. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie From: Sent: 04 November 2019 10:24 To: SIPO Shared Mailbox Subject: RE: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Dear Mr McKevitt, you can scarce imagine my pleasant surprise at receiving your letter of 18th October in response to, and some 5 months after, mine of 30th of May. I note that your letter is dated after 5.30 p.m. on a Friday and I trust that, though you seek a response 2 weeks after that Friday, that you will exercise your usual forbearance and accept this response 2 weeks after the following Monday. The following are the main issues which remain of interest to you: 2. I have checked the electoral Act 1997 online and note that, under Section 23, the maximum anonymous donation which may be accepted is indicated at £100 rather than €100. This equates to €128 and I assume that this is now the relevant threshold. (You might confirm). The method that we have for aggregating donations of less than €128 online, in order to ensure that we do not receive in excess of €128 in any calendar year anonymously, is that of aggregating credit card numbers. Donors also generally give their names. It would, however, appear to me that there is no similar method of ensuring that anonymous donors of cash at, for example, public meetings do not aggregate their contributions to an amount in excess of €128 in any calendar year. This loophole could 9 represent a threat to the stability of our political system and perhaps it is something that your organisation should bring to the attention of the relevant authorities. You will of course be aware of the €101 anonymous donation to which I referred in my last correspondence with you. I assume you are aware of the identity of the person who made this donation, as I assume it was made for entirely mischievous purposes and then notified to you. It also seems likely that it came from a foreign address in order, as I previously indicated, to make it appear that we were in breach of government guidelines. Can you please now confirm whether you know the identity of this anonymous donor, whether this anonymous donor is located abroad, and whether you will confirm his name so that we can refund his money to him? Alternatively, you might advise how we should deal with this money. A charitable donation to the nearest poorbox perhaps? Even though as outlined above this contribution seems to be below the threshold, we would not wish to keep money which was so obviously intended for nefarious purpose. I take it that the requirement that we hold the name and address of any person who makes a contribution online only applies in circumstances where the contribution is in excess of €128, or where aggregate contributions indicated by credit card is in excess of €128 euros in any calendar year. Sincerely Michael Leahy, Finance Officer Hermann Kelly, President Professor Dolores Cahill, Chairperson Irish Freedom Party. From: SIPO Shared Mailbox Sent: Friday 18 October 2019 17:36 12 To: Subject: Irish Freedom Party’s application to register as a third party Mr. Leahy I refer to your email of 29 May 2019. I apologise for the lengthy delay in responding to you. I wish to address the Irish Freedom Party’s compliance with the obligations of a third party. Contributions since 2 February 2019 As noted above, along with the email of 29 May 2019, you provided a list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019. You stated that all contributions were made by Irish credit cards. A third party is required by the Electoral Act not to accept prohibited donations. These include:      An anonymous donation exceeding €100 in value (a donation is anonymous if the name and address of the donor is not known to the third party concerned); A cash donation in excess of €200; A donation from a corporate donor in excess of €200, unless the corporate donor is registered in the Register of Corporate Donations published by the Standards Commission and the donation is accompanied by a statement made on behalf of the corporate donor confirming that the making of the donation was approved by the corporate donor; A donation in excess of €2,500; A donation which is from a person (other than an Irish citizen) who resides outside the island of Ireland, or from a body corporate or an unincorporated body of persons which does not keep an office in the island of Ireland from which at least one of its principal activities is directed. In addition, you should note that where a person makes more than one donation to a third party during the same calendar year, the donations must be aggregated and treated as a single donation for the purpose of observing the maximum limit. A third party is responsible for ensuring that donations accepted by him/her are not prohibited under the Act. This is particularly important where donations are received online. Where a third party is accepting donations through a website, it must ensure that it can properly identify the source of the donation and that it is not prohibited from accepting a donation from the donor. It is also important for disclosure purposes and for the purposes of adhering to the maximum acceptance limit that the third party has a system in place which will aggregate all donations from the same donor (by credit card, debit card etc.) and/or received by other means. Please note these provisions also apply to a registered political party. The Commission has published an explanatory note for third parties, which sets out the obligations which apply to third parties – https://www.sipo.ie/documents/english/Explanatory-note-for-third-parties.pdf In light of the above, can you indicate whether you have received any donations which are prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if so, the steps you have taken, or will take to address this in each case? In particular, please indicate whether you have received both the name and address of each donor listed on the printout. Identity of Donor In your email of 29 May 2019, you raised a query regarding a specific donation of €101 that was included in the list of donations received by the IFP between 30 January 2019 and 26 May 2019 which you had provided. Please note it is the responsibility of the recipient of a donation to ensure that any donation received is not prohibited by the Electoral Act and, if it is, to return it to the donor or remit it to the Commission within 14 days of its receipt. Please also note that, if it is not a prohibited donation, it is a matter for the Party to decide whether it wishes to retain the donation or return it to the donor. Regards, Brian McKevitt Commission Secretariat Check out our new website: www.sipo.ie Standards in Public Office Commission 18 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2 D02 HE97  info@sipo.ie  (+353-1) 639 5666 www.sipo.ie 16 16 June 2020 Mr Michael Leahy Irish Freedom Party Dear Mr Leahy, Thank you for your letter dated 2 June 2020, which was received in our office on 11 June 2020, notifying the Standards in Public Office Commission of receipt by the Irish Freedom Party of an anonymous donation of €101 and enclosing a cheque in that amount made out to the Commission. In accordance with section 23(3) of the Electoral Act 1997, on 15 June 2020 the Commission laid a copy of the letter of notification before each House of the Oireachtas. You may wish to note that your home address has been redacted from the letter of notification. The sum of €101 will be forwarded to the Department of Finance in accordance with that Department’s instructions in accordance with section 23(3). Yours sincerely, _______________ Sherry Perreault Head of Ethics and Lobbying Regulation 6 Ardán Phort an Iarla, Baile Átha Cliath 2, D02 W773 6 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 W773 T: 01 639 5666 info@sipo.ie www.sipo.ie Twitter: @SIPOCIreland