Tony Gregory
Ceist:112 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Finance if he will give details of any expenditure incurred by his Department in relation to the divorce referendum. [19317/96]
Written Answers. - Divorce Referendum Expenditure
A total of £208,000 was spent from the Vote of the Office of the Minister for Finance in relation to the divorce referendum.
The Ad-hoc Commission was set up to supervise the production and distribution to every household, of an information leaflet containing concise statements of the case for and the case against the constitutional amendment. The written statements for and against were prepared by two Senior Counsel. The total cost of the Ad-hoc Commission including distribution of the leaflets was £151,000.
In addition an advertising campaign was undertaken to remind people to vote on polling day. The cost of this campaign came to £57,000.
In addition to expenditure incurred by my Department, issues totalling £2.46 million have been authorised by my Department to date from the Central Fund in respect of the expenses of Returning Officers (£1.663 million), payments to An Post (£0.745 million) and to the Government Supplies Agency of the Office of Public Works (£0.052 million), for costs incurred in holding the referendum. Some bills have not yet been received and total expenditure from the Central Fund in respect of the referendum is estimated at £2.6 million.