Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin has said that it would be “tokenistic” for the party to make a €1,000 donation to charity following Jonathan Dowdall’s murder conviction.
The former Sinn Féin councillor made a €1,000 donation to leader Mary Lou McDonald’s Dublin Central constituency in 2011.
He was sentenced to four years in jail for his part in the Regency Hotel shooting in 2016 earlier this week.
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Dowdall (44) admitted that he assisted a criminal gang to commit the murder of David Byrne.
While a member of Sinn Féin, Dowdall made a €1,000 donation that the party has now confirmed was spent at the time.
Speaking in Leinster House on Tuesday morning, Mr Ó Broin was asked if the party would donate the same sum to a charity supporting the victims of gangland violence.
He said that this would be “tokenistic”.
“The money was donated over a decade ago, the money has been spent and there is no question of a refund,” he said.
“We should continue to represent our constituents who very often are at the receiving end of organised crime and a lack of proper investment in, for example, diversionary activities, community gardaí and investments to ensure that crime is tackled fully, rather than a tokenistic gesture of €1,000 donation.”
A Sinn Féin spokesperson told the Irish Mirror that the €1,000 charity donation was made at a time when Dowdall ran a “successful local electrical business”.
Mr Ó Broin said that if the party had been aware of Mr Dowdall’s link to crime, he would not have been admitted to the party or allowed to run for public office.
He said that the party was “very quick” to distance itself from Dowdall in the aftermath of the Regency shooting.
Mr Ó Broin also said that while parties do attempt to do due diligence, Sinn Féin does not have access to garda vetting.
He also denied a suggestion from the Irish Mirror that the party was “not digging deep enough”.
“I don't think that's the case at all,” he said.
“The fact that this is something that happened over a decade ago and it's one individual doesn't suggest that it's a practice that extends beyond that.”
Fine Gael’s Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has now called on Sinn Féin to answer further questions about Mr Dowdall’s link to the party.
She questioned what due diligence was carried out by the party and when party president Mary Lou McDonald was first made aware of his criminal connections.
“Every party needs to check backgrounds, and in fairness, it can be difficult to spot problems but a link to a criminal gang of this significance is a big one to miss,” she said.
Speaking to The Mirror, Ms Carroll MacNeill said that a €1,000 donation to charity would be the “decent thing to do”.
“It being tokenistic is not the point,” she said.
“If the money (from Dowdall) has already been spent, would you not want to make reparation? People in courts often bring money to be donated to a charity of their victims' choice.
“Sinn Féin is exceptionally well funded. If they wanted to make a donation, they could.”
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