SDLP NEED TO COME CLEAN ON DENIS O’BRIEN DONATIONS IN WAKE OF MORIARTY TRIBUNAL

Denis O'Brien at an early hearing of the Moriarty Tribunal

THE SDLP should come clean on the nature of their financial relationship with business tycoon Denis O’Brien after the publication yesterday of the Moriarty Tribunal Report about political donations, Sinn Féin Assembly member Daithí McKay has said:

While the relationship between Denis O’Brien and Michael Lowry and indeed Fine Gael was well known, it also emerged during the Tribunal hearings that Mr O’Brien was also a significant donor to the SDLP.

Given the very disturbing nature of the Moriarty Report and the self-proclaimed links between the SDLP and those political parties in the South implicated in its findings, it is now vital that the secrecy that has surrounded the SDLP’s financial dealings is lifted.

And Daithí McKay issued a direct challenge to SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie:

Questions for SDLP leader Ritchie

During her bid for the party leadership, Margaret Ritchie promised to reveal the extent of the SDLP corporate donations by April 2010. She has repeatedly failed to honour this pledge. Indeed, the SDLP recently supported the NIO in extending secrecy provisions around political donations in the North.

The questions need to be asked: what have the SDLP to fear from openness and transparency in politics and why have they consistently refused to reveal the extent of their relationship with big business?

As a starting point and in the wake of the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal, let the SDLP at least detail the full extent of their financial relationship with Denis O’Brien.