The Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, has confirmed that he solicited donations totalling £6,500 given to him by the Cork property developer Owen O'Callaghan. Another Cork Fianna Fáil TD, Batt O'Keefe, has said that Mr O'Callaghan paid him £10,000.
Mr O'Callaghan issued a statement acknowledging that he has made political donations to seven politicians. He says five of the recipients were from Dublin and two from Cork. The businessman said that now that the names of Mr Martin and Mr O'Keefe have been mentioned, all of them were now in the public domain, apart from a few contributions raised through raffles, race nights and other events. He said that these would add up to £2,000 or £3,000 over eleven years.
Micheál Martin confirmed that he solicited donations totalling £6,500 given to him by the property developer over four general and local elections since 1989. Mr Martin described the donations as political contributions which every politician received. He insisted that he was not compromised in any shape or form by the donations, which were used to fund election literature. Mr Martin said that he has not informed the party of the payments as the recent party inquiry related to activities in Dublin. He added that he did not receive any other payments in kind from Mr O'Callaghan and said he never paid towards the cost of running his constituency office.
Batt O'Keefe also admitted in a statement last night that he received £10,000 from Mr O'Callaghan for election expenses in 1992. Mr O'Keefe said he received the money in one political donation while a senator, fighting to win a third seat for the party.
