Annual Report 2007

Submission to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on a proposal to introduce expenditure limits at local elections

In August 2007, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government published a notice inviting submissions on various aspects of local government which would be addressed in a Green Paper on Local Government Reform. One area on which submissions were sought was in relation to expenditure limits at local elections. Given its experience of supervising the limitation and disclosure of election expenses at Dáil and European elections, the Standards Commission decided to provide a submission to the Minister. Included in the Standards Commission's submission were the following suggestions:

1. Different spending limits might be required for elections to county councils and elections to town councils.
2. Statements of expenditure at local elections should be available for public inspection and their availability widely publicised. There should be a statutory requirement on the body concerned to publicise the availability of these returns.
3. Where a valid complaint concerning non-compliance with spending limits at a local election is received, the matter should be investigated by an independent body and not by the local authority concerned. That independent body should also have the power to conduct inquiries or investigations on its own initiative in the absence of a complaint.
4. The election period at local elections should be in the region of 90 - 120 days. This would help to avoid the front loading of election expenditure and to ensure the effectiveness of expenditure limits at local elections.
5. Spending by third parties/other persons on goods, property or services for electoral purposes during the election period should be subject to the same limits applying to candidates at the election and should be disclosed.
6. The expenditure limit available to political parties at a local election should be determined by the number of candidates standing for the party. The party may only use this spending limit for its national campaign (i.e. leaders tour, party political broadcast etc.) and may not use this spending on individual candidates. Where a political party (either headquarters or local organisation) proposes to spend money on an individual candidate it should be authorised by the candidate (or his/her election agent if an election agent has been appointed) and would form part of the individual candidate's spending limit.

Full details of the Standards Commission's submission to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government are available on the website of the Standards Commission.

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