Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 5 Jul 2001

Vol. 540 No. 3

Written Answers. - Election Expenditure.

Noel Ahern

Ceist:

204 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he is satisfied that the provisions of the electoral Acts adequately cover expenditure by voluntary and community groups on public information campaigns, ostensibly related to their primary activities but in reality containing political statements or statements favouring a particular candidate in an election; his views on whether the costs of such material should be considered as electoral expenditure and included in returns of electoral expenditure; his further views on whether adequate safeguards exist in electoral legislation and regulations to prevent individual candidates from using the publications of community or voluntary groups as non-reckonable publicity material; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20603/01]

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey)

The monitoring of the provisions in relation to election expenditure under the Electoral Act, 1997, is a matter for the Public Offices Commission. Under section 31(7) of the Act, third parties wishing to incur expenditure are required to register in advance with the Public Offices Commission and furnish a detailed account of such expenditure after the election in the same way as agents of a party or candidates. If a party or candidate seek to circumvent the control provisions by arranging to have particular expenditure incurred by an ostensibly independent person or organisation, section 31(6) of the Act provides that such expenses will be deemed to be incurred on behalf of the party or candidate and must be accounted for by the relevant agent.

While it does not appear to have been represented that these particular provisions are operating other than satisfactorily, they are matters which I will keep under review, inter alia, in reports from the Public Offices Commission.