Sinn Féin response to NIOGN letter on donor transparency – February 2017
In response to our letter about transparency on political party donations, we received the following response from Michelle O’Neill on behalf of Sinn Féin:
“Sinn Féin is committed to ensuring the highest levels of transparency in the funding of political parties whether that is in the form of donations or loans.
Our commitment is to end the practice of keeping the identity of donors secret. This means that the threshold for reporting donations should be lowered to £750. Sinn Féin publishes our accounts annually on our website.
Sinn Fein’s position is that there should be greater transparency in political donations without delay. However this was rejected by the British government.
Vested interests secretly contributing to political parties raise wider public concerns and suspicions. This does a disservice to politics in general. These matters have been brought into sharper focus with the scandals around RHI, Red Sky and NAMA. Greater transparency is needed to bring such practices to an end.
Sinn Féin and those who vote for us expect the highest standards from all our public representatives.
We will continue to act in an open and transparent manner with regards to our financial affairs and we would encourage the other parties to do likewise.
Is mise le meas
Michelle O’Neill MLA”