The following article by W. Owl was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
IT is just typical that it took a criminal conviction for other issues to come out about Jeffrey Donaldson. For example, the Irish News reported 1.7.26 that in his register of interests for his time in the House of Commons he was paid £6,210 by the Ministry for Defence for "consultancy on peacebuilding", a fee paid for 112 hours work. This was four months after an alleged drink related incident in Washington. A year later in June 2019 he received a further £5,541 for 84 hours work again for "consultancy on peacebuilding". It is believed that he is the only MP from Northen Ireland to have received such payments. It was stated that no further details were provided as to what specific work was carried out by him for the two payments. These fees were separate to contracts granted to a peacebuilding company founded by Donaldson, his brother Kingsley and Emma Little Pengelly. The Causeway Initiative as it was known was awarded contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from the Foreign Office according to the Irish News for work around the world, including in Bahrain, Afghanistan, and Moldova. The company was set up to support international peacebuilding efforts "drawing on the experiences of the Northern Ireland peace process". There is no comments about how effective it was. The company was dissolved in 2020 while Donaldson resigned as a director in 2016. We are told that he "racked up" millions of pounds in taxpayers funded salary payments and expenses since becoming an MP in1997. He continued to claim for rent, travel and staff costs even after he was charged with the sex crimes in March 2024. Whilst he resigned as DUP leader in the aftermath of the charges, he technically remained an MP until May 2024 when parliament was dissolved.
Between 1st April 2024 and March 31st, 2025, his business costs totalled just over £277.000. Whilst most of this went towards staff salaries and redundancy payments following a "winding up period" which concluded in November 2024 he received more than £24,000 in wages. After he had been charged at the end of March 2025, he claimed almost £8000 in rent payments for an apartment in London which he is understood to have used as a bail address after his charges became public. According to the Irish News other expenses claimed were for van hire for removal of boxes and other materials from his London accommodation in August 2024. He also claimed £2,000 in air travel as well as a series of payments paid to his office for the confidential shredding of case files and documents. Travel costs for his staff to fly to London and stay in hotels also came out of the public purse amounting to almost £6,000. However, he did make the point that all expense payments made in 2024-2025 "were in compliance with existing contractual obligations" and were "were pre-approved by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and "were in full compliance with IPSA scheme rules". Some people might argue that if that is the case it says a lot about the IPSA.
We are also told that under current rules, Donaldson will be eligible to draw a pension worth hundreds of thousands of pounds from his time as an MP and MLA. No wonder then that calls have been made for a change to parliamentary rules so that those convicted of offences will no longer be automatically entitled to the pension payments. One of the recipients of the redundancy payment will be his wife who lost her job as senior secretary to him. This even though she was charged with aiding and abetting her husband. In the most recent parliamentary records, it was revealed she was paid between "£25,000 and £30,000 per year in her role as secretary. At the end of the day Donaldson and his wife will only be remembered for their infidelity in all this sordid saga. However, it may not be totally over as there could be more revelations to come.
History will not be kind to Donaldson nor should it be"