Dáil bye-elections 2009

C. Spending by the national agent

3.10 The national agent is the only person who can incur expenditure or make payments on behalf of the party out of the spending limit assigned to it by its candidates. Where expenses have been incurred by or on behalf of a political party before the appointment of a national agent, the party must furnish details of all such expenses, together with all relevant vouchers, to the national agent. It is an offence for a political party to fail to comply with this requirement.

3.11 The national agent can authorise other persons to incur expenditure or make payments within specific limits set by the national agent. The national agent must account for spending by all such authorised persons.

3.12 At a Dáil bye-election, all spending by the national agent out of the amount assigned to the party by the candidate is deemed to be spending incurred on the candidate's behalf.

3.13 The national agent can spend up to 100% of a candidate's spending limit, if the candidate assigns this to the party. If the national agent is assigned a spending limit and incurs election expenses, great care must be taken to ensure that the total spend on the candidate by his/her election agent and by the national agent does not exceed the statutory limit for the constituency (i.e., €45,200 for Dublin South and €37,650 for Dublin Central).

3.14 The national agent cannot incur expenditure or make payments out of the amount of the spending limit retained by the candidate unless the national agent is authorised to do so by the candidate's election agent. In this situation, expenditure by the national agent would be as an authorised person of the election agent and any such expenditure would have to be recorded by the election agent.

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