Soc Dems told they may not give back funding to Donnelly

The Social Democrats were told it would be illegal to hand back nearly €65,000 in state funding to its former co-leader Stephen Donnelly, despite the party being willing to do so.

Donnelly quit the party in September 2016 and later joined Fianna Fáil. The SocDems are entitled to €193,104 a year or €16,092 per month under the parliamentary activities allowance (PAA), which is allocated to parties based on their number of TDs. Independent ...