Bank of Ireland offers £300,000 loan to Sinn Fein

The loan from the London-based outfit is one of the items to emerge from the most recent set of donation figures, published by the Electoral Commission.

Whilst the official funding register lists it as a loan, the commission describes it as a “credit facility”, understood to basically be a kind of overdraft.

The money became available at the end of October 2018, and is to be paid back at 4.25% per annum, plus base rate.

Sinn Fein was asked what the money was for – for example, if it was earmarked for any particular major campaign – but it did not say.

It is the only loan listed by any Northern Ireland party since the law was changed in mid-2017 to bring some transparency to party funding.

The Electoral Commission figures cover quarter four of 2018 – meaning that for the first time the public now have a full picture of an entire calendar year’s-worth of donations to NI’s parties.

When it comes to the main parties in the Province, the biggest corporate donation of the year was a £21,560 one from Dublin-based pharma company Ferring (Ireland) Limited to the Alliance Party last April.

The next biggest was a £10,000 one to the Conservative Party in August from Belfast International Airport (which has faced heavy criticism in the past year over inadequate investment in security, leading to enormous delays for travellers).

There were also four seperate sums of £7,500 given throughout the year to the Alliance Party by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, a charitable trust which says it “supports overtly political causes that confront corrosive powers in our democracy”.

In addition, Belfast International Airport also gave Ian Paisley’s North Antrim DUP association £4,000 last January.

The remainder of the donations were from individuals (overwhelmingly Sinn Fein politicians donating to their own party coffers), and public funding which parties are entitled to for helping with office upkeep and other expenses.

In all throughout the year Sinn Fein received the greatest amount of donations, about £494,234. This was followed by the DUP with £493,910, then Alliance with about £127,000, SDLP with £108,000 and UUP with £96,000.