Election spending - Removal of bias is good news for all

Whatever short-term implications may flow from yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on election spending rules, it should help to make the playing pitch more level in future elections.

The more immediate consequence is that disappointed candidates in last May’s general election are entitled to petition the courts if they believe the result in their case was undermined by the use of State facilities by outgoing TDs or Senators. Realistically, the result would have had to have been excruciatingly tight to warrant such a recourse.

Sitting politicians who are deemed to have overspent could face prosecution, but that course of action is unlikely under the circumstances, given the rules were changed on the eve of the election by the High Court.