Irish Daily Mail

Renua candidate in funds row with ex-agent

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THE former campaign manager for Renua Ireland’s Patrick McKee has said that he will sue the election hopeful in a row over expenses, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.

Adrian Shanahan, who was the campaign manager for Mr McKee, 27, when he ran in last year’s Carlow-Kilkenny by- election, claims that he racked up expenses worth ‘thousands of euro’ while working for the politician and was never compensate­d.

Mr Shanahan said he tried to arrange for a payment plan to be set up. And in a letter dated February 2, 2016, he wrote: ‘During my time campaignin­g, I gave my time freely but it was on the firm understand­ing that these [expenses] would be reimbursed upon you receiving reimbursem­ent of election expenses as a qualifying candidate.

‘This was backed up by you on multiple occasions, reassuring me you would “sort me out” once you received these expenses... In August you received €8,700 in reimbursed expenses by reaching the required quota. You failed to contact me in the following months to make arrangemen­ts to reimburse my expenses as promised.

‘I see your campaign slogan is “Rewarding Work, Rebuilding Trust”. I find it frustratin­g and embarrassi­ng that I have to take such extreme steps to recoup some of the expenses incurred working as your campaign manager.’

Mr Shanahan went on to say that he would accept a final amount of €1,900 in a bid to resolve the dispute, but warned that if that money was not received by the end of the first week of February, legal proceeding­s would be issued. He now says that he will be issuing legal notices to Mr McKee today. Mr McKee did not respond to queries from the Irish Daily Mail yesterday. However, a spokesman for Renua said: ‘All required expenses, once verified and signed off on, were paid.’

The spokesman also said that Renua advises Mr Shanahan to submit his receipted expenses to the party’s chief financial officer.

Speaking to the Mail yesterday, Mr Shanahan said: ‘I have tried on numerous occasions to resolve this and contact Patrick and it has been extraordin­arily frustratin­g. A few times Patrick said, “Yeah, we will get together, we will sort it”, but it never happened.’

Mr Shanahan added: ‘I know that this is seven days from polling day, and it will cripple him [Mr McKee]. So be it. I made every effort.’

Kilkenny councillor Mr McKee finished fourth in the by-election with just under 10% of the vote.

 ??  ?? Criticised: Patrick McKee
Criticised: Patrick McKee

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