Strict spending guidelines made for 'a fairer race'
Nora Owen with supporters in Balbriggan before the local elections. She insisted that no Fine Gael candidate came close to spending 15,000.
Wednesday June 17 2009
RUNNING a successful election campaign, even at local level, is an expensive business but new rules capping spending in this year's election has levelled the playing field somewhat, giving all the candidates a real shot at election. Taking as an example, the successful campaign conducted by Fine Gael in the Howth/Malahide ward, the party's PRO for Fingal has given the Fingal Independent some idea of how the costs of a campaign are broken down.
In the
Howth/ Malahide ward, Fine Gael succeeded in bringing home two seats with just two candidates, namely, Cllr Alan Farrell and Cllr Joan Maher. The party's PRO for the area is former Justice Minister, Nora Owen who said that neither candidate would have spent ' anywhere near' the € 15,000 cap put on election spending this time around.
The financing of elections is far more strict than it used to be and this year's local elections were run under new guidelines from the Standards in Public Office Commission (SPOC) this year. Candidates must open a political bank account and all donations to the campaign have to be declared to the SPOC. Ms Owen estimates that each of the Fine Gael candidates would have spent around seven to € 8,000 in the four weeks running up to polling day although the final tally is yet to be calculated. Those costs would have included some 400 posters at a cost of € 4.40 each, 10 large billboardtype posters at a cost of
€ around € 40 each and about € 1,000 on local newspaper advertising.
Leaflet printing and delivering is another major cost and then on top of that there are various sundries like phone bills and food and refreshments for all those hard-working campaign volunteers. Ms Owen believes that the new rules have made the race a fairer one this time around but said that it had to be ensured that parties were keeping within the new spending limits.
- John MANNING
