There is a "certain wooliness" surrounding the rules on how much money a candidate can spend in a general election, the chairman of the Public Offices Commission, Mr Kevin Murphy, said yesterday.
Politicians and the commission, he said, had also been concerned about other matters, including the use of Oireachtas envelopes, and issues such as buying rounds of drinks for canvassers. He said that after much confusion, it had been decided that the clock would start ticking on expenses once a general election had been called. However, politicians were free to spend money all year prior to that, but could not use material printed before then in a campaign.
Mr Murphy explained that in a general election with 500 candidates, about 200 of them would be former Oireachtas members with the use of Dail facilities. "There is a feeling among the other 300 that there isn't a level playing field if they can use Oireachtas envelopes." However, legislation is going through the Dail this week to provide that facilities from public funds will not be deemed as election expenses, including the use of Oireacthas envelopes.
Mr Murphy said a similar situation existed for ministers who had an extra "degree of support" including a State car. No decision has yet been made on that area. On paying expenses to canvassers, Mr Murphy said the commission decided to allocate £100 per worker per day. However, under the Electoral Amendement Act, going through the Dail this week, a candidate can spend "£100 on any one payment".
Asked whether the commission was too rigid in its approach, Mr Murphy said "the campaigners in the area of ethics say we are not rigid enough". He said the guidelines for the general election would be published shortly.
The Public Offices Commission is to await the outcome of investigations before deciding whether to proceed with inquiries into allegations that gardai and employees from semi-state companies accepted free trips to Spain, Portugal and Italy. The trips were paid for by Advance Pitstop, which supplied tyres for cars and commercial vehicles of the Garda and relevant semi-state firms.
Mr John Purcell, a member of the commission, said the gardai had just completed their investigation. He would also be making inquiries into "the appropriateness of the junket by people in a position to influence procurement".
It had not just been gardai involved, he said, but also an employee from An Post and one from Iarnrod Eireann. However, under the relevant legislation, the An Post employee was designated under the Ethics in Public Office Act, and only one of the gardai in the group.