Annual Report 2005

Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005

In its Annual Report for 2004 the Standards Commission referred to difficulties which had arisen due to the introduction of section 33 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004. Section 33 was intended to amend paragraph 2(a) of the Schedule of the Electoral Acts to reflect the High Court and Supreme Court judgments in the Desmond Kelly case. Arising from these judgments, election expenses at Dáil and European Parliament elections which are met from public funds are now subject to the expenditure limit applying at the election and must be accounted for in an Election Expenses Statement. Paragraph 2(a) had hitherto precluded such costs from being regarded as election expenses. Paragraph 2(a) had also included a number of other matters which were not to be regarded as election expenses. These matters had not been affected by the Courts' judgments in the Desmond Kelly case. Section 33, rather than amending paragraph 2(a) specifically in relation to costs met from public funds, had instead deleted the paragraph in its entirety.

The Standards Commission set out the implications of this amendment and its concerns in this regard. It reported that it had made these concerns known to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government who had agreed to bring forward legislative proposals which would address the position. The Standards Commission noted that an amending Bill had been introduced. That Bill was subsequently enacted on 9 July 2005 as the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2005 (the 2005 Act). The Standards Commission is satisfied that section 6 of the 2005 Act satisfactorily addresses the issue by restoring in paragraph 2(a) to the Schedule those matters which had not been affected by the Courts' judgments.

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