Gallagher bluster can’t obscure fact he got €5,000 for Fianna Fáil

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD has said that no amount ofbluster by Seán Gallagher will hide the reality that, despite previous statements to the contrary, he organised a secret Fianna Fáil fundraiser in Dundalk in 2008 and received a cheque for €5,000 from at least one individual who attended.

Mary Lou said:

Last week, Seán Gallagher denied that he had received money in connection with a Fianna Fáil fundraiser at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk in 2008; last night, on live television, under pressure from Martin McGuinness, he was forced to change his story.

It has been confirmed today by a number of sources that the cheque was collected and passed on to Fianna Fáil in advance of the event.

The sequence of events in this story is that this man gave a cheque to Seán Gallagher in advance of a Fianna Fáil fundraiser at the Crowne Plaza. He attended the secret fundraiser at Seán Gallagher’s request where there were present between 30 and 35 big business people and property developers.

No amount of bluster by Seán Gallagher will obscure these facts. The Irish people have had enough of cronyism, golden circles and the ‘brown envelope’ culture. Sean Gallagher is cut from the same cloth as a Fianna Fáil leadership mired in that culture. More than ever it is very clear that the choice in this election is between those representing the failed politics of the establishment and Martin McGuinness who represents a break with the politics of the past and a new beginning for Ireland.