By Eve Noon

DUNDEE WEST MSP Joe FitzPatrick last night pledged to give all of the £10,000 he received on standing down as a councillor to charity before the start of the next Holyrood elections in three years’ time.

The SNP member previously said—amid controversy—that he would give the “golden handshake” money away to good causes but a year on only around a third of it has been distributed.

The figures came to light after it emerged that the MSP is under investigation by Scotland’s parliamentary watchdog for failing to declare the severance payment.

When asked why not all of the money had yet been given to charity, Mr FitzPatrick told The Courier, “There’s lots of deserving organisations.

“I have given small donations, from as little as £50, so I have had to make a choice of where a small donation would have made a difference.

“Not every organisation would benefit from that amount. It’s maybe helped the organisation do something they would otherwise not have been able to afford.”

In September 2006, Mr FitzPatrick announced he would give the £10,000 to local charities and community projects if he won the Holyrood seat.

At the time the Labour candidate for the constituency, then city council administration leader Jill Shimi, accused Mr FitzPatrick of trying to “bribe” the electorate.

She wrote to the Electoral Commission asking if the offer constituted a breach of electoral law as it offered a financial inducement to vote for him but the commission declined to get involved.

Mr FitzPatrick said, “When there was all the controversy in regards to this I faced two choices. Having been accused of trying to bribe the electorate I could have decided I would just not give the money away after all.

“On the other hand I could have insisted that every cheque I gave away appeared in the paper.

“I decided not to do any of those. Instead I have quietly been giving deserving organisations money. I have not requested publicity and will continue to give money to organisations as and when I decide they are deserving of it.”

He concluded, “I have given away about £3000 so far and I will make sure it’s all been donated before the start of the next Holyrood campaign in May 2011.”

Mr FitzPatrick would not, however, make any comment on the watchdog’s probe as he said it could be deemed a “breach of standards.”

Dundee man David Falconer has asked the Scottish Parliament standards commissioner Jim Dyer to investigate if failing to declare the payment in the register of interests after becoming an MSP is a breach of the rules.

Mr Falconer’s letter reads, “I completely accept that Mr FitzPatrick was entitled to this payment but I am concerned it is not declared in his member’s register of interests.”

Sources within the SNP have described the allegation as a “publicity stunt” orchestrated by the SNP’s rivals.

Mr Dyer said he was unable to comment.