Sipo complaint over Donohoe election expenses closed, Fine Gael says

A complaint against Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe over election expenses has been closed, Fine Gael has said.

A party statement said that the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) had written to Mr Donohoe this week and informed him “no further action will be taken”.

It relates to controversy earlier this year over undeclared expenses from Mr Donohoe related to both the 2016 and 2020 election campaigns.

Mr Donohoe apologised to the Dail for the failure to declare expenses related to postering work that was financed by the businessman Michael Stone and amended his returns to Sipo.

The minister said he wrongly assumed the postering had been done on a voluntary basis.

The Fine Gael statement said Sipo had ruled that the amendment made to Mr Donohoe’s election returns “is consistent with the commission’s approach to compliance”.

It also said Sipo had judged the matter was “not of sufficient gravity” to warrant investigation.

Mr Donohoe said: “I am grateful to the commission for its work.

“I regret that this issue occurred and I welcome that it has now been definitively dealt with.

“I also want to thank the Taoiseach (Leo Varadkar), Tanaiste (Micheal Martin), Minister (Eamon) Ryan and all of my colleagues in Government for their support.”