HOW THE €800,000 ADDS UP ...
Saturday June 19 2004
The State paid the party €416,566 directly and a further €266,325 through the Party Leader's Allowance.
However, Sinn Fein collected a further €103,583.87 in 2003 - almost two-thirds of the total private donations made to all parties in the Republic.
The party's then 12 Northern Assembly members gave just over €6,000 each, a total of €73,235 to party funds.
Donations made to political parties in Northern Ireland need not be disclosed if they are not spent on funding the party there, so the party's elected representatives in the North provide significant funding for Sinn Fein's operations in the Republic.
Sinn Fein's leader in the Dail, Caoimhghin O Caolain, donated €6,348 - the maximum allowed by law - and each of the party's four other TDs gave €6,000.
Sinn Fein's TDs and councillors also give substantial funding from their salaries and generous expenses to constituency organisations which, according to the Public Office Commission, does not need to be declared as a donation.
In the first six months of 2003, 'Friends of Sinn Fein' in the US provided nearly $600,000 (€497,000), although Gerry Adams's US tour raised $1.5m for the party.
Between 1997 and 2002 'Friends of Sinn Fein' raised $3.5m yet the SDLP could only manage to raise a total of $20,000 in the US in the same period while the Ulster Unionists received more than $100,000.
However, it is now illegal for Irish political parties to raise funds abroad for spending at home so 'Friends of Sinn Fein' doesn't repatriate money but uses it to pay Sinn Fein's bills in Ireland and the US.
The party also raises millions in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
