In the last five years, the Irish government has given about €70,000 to a peace corporation in which DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson named as a director.
It emerges amid DUP's criticism of Dublin's financing of a charity's research into how the media's use of language in Northern Ireland influences politics.
The study, which is part of a larger project on attitudes toward a united Ireland, attempts to look into the "positive/negative contribution" media outlets have on public debate on the subject.
It has enraged unionists, notably DUP MP Gregory Campbell, who described the Irish government's financing as "politically toxic."
It "smacks of an attempt to influence language and drive forward reporting which is sympathetic to nationalism". he said. The study is one of several research studies commissioned by the Holywell Trust, a community development organisation located in Londonderry (Derry if you wish), as part of its Future Relationship Conversations project.
The project has received funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin's Reconciliation Fund.
Sir Jeffrey is the chairman and unpaid director of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to "share the values and principles of democracy in order to build peace, stability and reconciliation".
The organisation began a fellowship programme at Stormont last week, with funding from the Department for Foreign Affairs as well as several businesses.
According to the Department for Foreign Affairs' website, the company in which Sir Jeffery Donaldson is a director got €66,700 from the Irish government's Reconciliation Fund between 2015 and 2020.
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