2011 General Election Independent candidate for Dublin South East and Trinity Classical Civilisation and Art History student, Dylan Haskins, will donate €10,000 of his election fund to ten charities and causes, Trinity News can reveal.
Haskins, who was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, will finance the donations through the €8,700 reimbursement he received for electoral expenses as well as the surplus left in his campaign account.
The reimbursement is in accordance with Public Office Commission regulations which state that any candidate that receives over one quarter of a constituency quota – his 1,928 votes is over a quarter of the 6,984 required in Dublin South East.
Other candidates in Dublin South East who were entitled to reimbursement were: Eoghan Murphy (FG), Lucinda Creighton (FG), Rúairí Quinn (Lab), Kevin Humphreys (Lab), Chris Andrews (FF), Paul Sommerville (Ind) and John Gormley (GP).
In total he will donate €10,000 to ten charities and causes which he feels the money will be most effective. “The charities and causes have been suggested and selected collectively by eight of the full time campaign team and myself on behalf of all who worked on and contributed to the campaign”, he says adding “none of these people were paid and so these donations are as much from them as from me.”
The gifts include a €1,000 payment to TheStory.ie (a website aiming to increase political transparency), a €1,500 donation to Educate Together (an established school patron body) and a €1,000 contribution to Headstrong (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health).
Speaking of Haskins’ donation Orlaith Foley, a spokesperson for Headstrong, said “We really appreciate Dylan’s support of our work. His commitment, as one of last years youngest candidates and someone who worked so hard to empower young people to have a voice, is something we in Headstrong believe to be critical because young people’s voices need to be heard and used to inform policy and politics.”
