Election spend limits ‘favour big parties’

SPENDING limits set for June’s European election are biased in favour of large political parties, Socialist Party candidate Joe Higgins has claimed.

Mr Higgins, a candidate in the hotly-contested Dublin region, said the election limit set yesterday set at €230,000 per candidate was far beyond anything he and others could afford.

"The idea of spending €230,000 is just beyond belief. That's a huge amount of money, which is designed to facilitate bigger parties," he said.