European Parliament 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 Spending by the national agent out of the amount assigned to the party by its candidates can be either on a candidate or at national level.

3.13 Spending on a candidate is spending which identifies and promotes a candidate(s) in a constituency. This includes the party's 'team' in a constituency (i.e. candidate and running mate(s)). Where election materials (e.g. posters, billboards) feature a party's leader and its candidates, the expenditure will be deemed to have been incurred on the candidates concerned and not the party leader.

3.14 Spending by the national agent on a particular candidate cannot exceed the amount assigned to the party by the candidate. No part of a candidate's spending limit can be transferred from one candidate to another. Total spending on a candidate by his/her election agent and by the party's national agent cannot exceed the statutory limit for candidates at the election (€230,000).

3.15 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.

3.16 National spending is spending which by its content and geographic extent is clearly aimed at attracting votes in the country as a whole. It is not directly related to the promotion of a particular candidate or candidates in a constituency. Reference should be to the party, its leadership, its policies or election issues in a national context. National spending should be reasonably evenly spread throughout the country. National spending is usually on items like the party manifesto, party political broadcasts, tours by the party leader, etc. Where party political broadcasts feature members of the party leadership or party spokespersons, the expenses incurred will be regarded as national spending and will not be regarded as having been incurred on the individual candidates. Where a candidate who is not a party spokesperson and who is not part of the party leadership appears in a party political broadcast, this will not be regarded as national spending and an appropriate portion of the cost of the broadcast may be regarded as expenditure incurred on the candidate's behalf.

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