Pressure on TDs as election spending figures are released

MOST of the Cabinet are expected to be in breach of election expenditure limits when campaign spending statements for last year’s general election are published today, Government sources said last night.

A full breakdown of what the Government spent to get re-elected in May 2002 will be disclosed in a report by the Standards in Public Offices Commission but already it is conceded that the majority of Government ministers and a number of TDs are over-budget.

In theory, exceeding the limit could leave a deputy open to criminal prosecution while a more serious offence such as making a false declaration of expenditure is punishable by a fine of over 25,000 and/or three years in prison.

Their election could also be deemed invalid and their seat withdrawn if the State or a political opponent was to mount a successful challenge against them in the courts. This would lead to a by-election.

But offenders are likely to be saved due to confusion surrounding last year’s High Court ruling, backed by the Supreme Court, which found the method used by sitting TDs to calculate election expenses under-valued the amount they actually spent.

The courts ruled it was wrong for outgoing TDs not to take into consideration the free use of Dáil secretarial services, telephones and postage, which, if sourced privately, could cost thousands of euro and, when added to campaign bills, could push spending above legal limits.

The ruling came just one day before the election, however, which should provide an escape clause.

Independent candidate Kathy Sinnott, who lost out on a seat to Fianna Fáil’s John Dennehy by just six votes after three recounts in the Cork South Central constituency, is preparing for a line-by-line examination of today’s statements and has indicated she is prepared to mount a legal challenge to her successful opponent if necessary.

“There will be a lot of number-crunching involved because you have not only a candidate’s expenditure on themselves but also their party’s spending on them and their contribution to the party spend,” she said.

But she said spending statements alone would not reveal the full extent to which sitting TDs had unfair advantage over outside candidates and she called for a fresh debate on the way elections were funded and spending monitored.

“You had massive spending by deputies on literature and promotions in the weeks before the election was called but they don’t have to include that, even though they would have had insider information that the election was about to be called,” she said.

Statutory spending limits for the general election are set out in the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2001. The limits per candidate, are: €25,394.76 in a three-seat constituency; €31,743.45 in a four-seat constituency and €38,092.14 in a five-seat constituency.