This article is from page 20 of the 2008-07-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
SPENDING caps look set to be 1m- posed on the candidates that will con- test the local elections in Clare next June.
With no spending cap in place, can- didates in other areas last year spent around €100,000 in order to get elected.
Speaking on the issue, the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley said, “This is not tolerable. It is like the United States, with the best de-
mocracy money can buy. We must get away from this.”
“We had examples in the past where there were expenditure figures for local election candidates of approxi- mately €100,000, which is ridicu- lous,’ he said.
Minister Gormley said that he is seeking all-party consensus on the is- sue. “I am sure we can make progress on this,’ he said.
Minister Gormley said that the re- cently-published Green Paper “‘out- lines a range of issues for considera-
tion, including the establishment of expenditure limits at local elections”.
“The submissions made in _ the course of the preparation of the Green Paper were generally supportive of some expenditure limit. The Green Paper outlines two main options with regard to such limits for local elec- tions, to introduce a fixed expenditure ceiling or to link limits to a propor- tion of Dail expenditure.
“It states that care needs to be taken to ensure against overly bureaucratic rules and suggests that it may be use-
ful to engage on the issue on a cross- party basis. In this regard, I have written to the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government with a view to engaging with the committee and to explore the scope for an all-party approach to this issue,” he said.
Green party councillor, Brian Meaney said that he is aware of in excess of €20,000 being spent by a candidate in Clare in the last local A Cetera Coys ens WACO. ms
‘There is a real need to have spend-
ing limits in place and to ensure that the limits do not only apply to the three weeks in which an election is officially called,’ he said.
Cllr Meaney said that the failure to have a spending limit in place in general elections for more than three weeks has been abused and favours that the parties who have warchests and can spend limitless funds.
Cllr Meaney said that the recent ref- erendum campaign on Lisbon also al- lowed obscure candidates to publicise themselves.