Catherine Connolly has confirmed that she used a taxpayer-funded allowance to fund a trip to Syria in 2018.
The development is likely to lead to questions for the Independent presidential candidate, who was asked about who funded the trip in July.
At the time, she said: “I funded that trip.”
The Irish Times reported on Thursday morning that she had submitted a claim under the Parliamentary Activities Allowance for €3,691 related to “Syria” in her statements to the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) Commission for 2018.
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Ms Connolly’s campaign did not respond to a request for a full breakdown of what this sum was spent on when initially approached by The Irish Times on Wednesday. The campaign team did not respond to attempts to contact them by phone, text and email.
Also on Wednesday, Ms Connolly told reporters she had “no difficulty as a candidate with scrutiny and accountability”, adding that “questions should be posed and answered”.
However, on Thursday morning her campaign released a statement confirming she used a portion of the Parliamentary Activities Allowance under the “Research” heading “to support a fact-finding visit to Syria”.
She travelled to the Middle Eastern country as part of an Irish delegation that also included then fellow Independent TDs Clare Daly, Mick Wallace and Maureen O’Sullivan.
The total declared amount was €3,691, as set out in her Sipo return, the campaign said.
“This expenditure was made for research purposes: to gather first-hand information relevant to Catherine’s parliamentary work on foreign policy, humanitarian issues, sanctions, Irish neutrality and Ireland’s role in international institutions. Costs covered standard travel and subsistence. No personal benefit accrued.”
The statement continued: “Engagement with people and organisations on the ground in conflict settings is part of responsible parliamentary research. Such engagement does not imply endorsement of any government, faction or policy. Catherine’s record is consistent and clear: a commitment to human rights, active neutrality, humanitarian law and peace.
“Catherine welcomes scrutiny of public spending and will continue to act with transparency and accountability in all aspects of her work.”
At the time of the trip, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was still in power and engaged in a brutal civil war. The country was under western sanctions.
Ms Connolly has previously said the delegation visited a refugee camp outside Damascus and “saw first-hand the destruction of a whole city”. They travelled to Aleppo and met the chamber of industry, had a meeting with Unicef workers and visited a convent.
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While in Aleppo, the Irish delegation met Syrian businessman and politician Fares al-Shehabi.
Although he was an independent MP, Mr al-Shehabi was a supporter of the military actions taken by the government side in the civil war. He was deemed a supporter of the Assad regime and placed under European Union sanctions.
In one incident Mr al-Shehabi posted on social media about a seven-year-old girl (who had been posting online about the war and criticising the regime), writing: “Dear world, it’s better this little witch die before she starts, with her sponsors, WW3!”
During an RTÉ Radio interview at the end of August, Ms Connolly was asked about the Irish delegation meeting with Mr al-Shehabi.
“I had absolutely no respect for that man after listening to him for the duration that I listened to him,” she said. “He was the head of the chamber of commerce. There was community activists with us and that man was put under serious pressure in relation to questions. Were we happy with the answers? Absolutely not.”
Asked whether, in hindsight, she thought it was a mistake to meet Mr al-Shehabi, Ms Connolly replied: “Certainly in retrospect, when one looks back and sees the comments that he made and you see them, absolutely, this man is utterly unacceptable to me.”
During the interview, Ms Connolly said she has “never, ever hesitated in my utter condemnation of Assad publicly and privately”.
She said the trip to Syria “empowered me, enabled me and made me stronger as a voice for peace and to use our voice at every level in every situation to abhor what’s going on”.
