Up to 90 per cent of candidates in the 2002 general election had to make alterations in their spending returns to conform to new legislation controlling spending limits, the High Court was told yesterday.
Mr Hugh Dolan, finance director with Fianna Fáil, said that while alterations had to be made in the spending returns submitted on behalf of Fianna Fáil candidates, he was aware Fine Gael and Labour also had to make alterations. He understood the Standards in Public Office Commission itself had required alterations in up to 90 per cent of returns. Mr Dolan said Fianna Fáil's final return was submitted in May 2003. He agreed there were notes on the return document and some figures were crossed out but said these made the return transparent with the alterations evident to all. He understood Fine Gael and Labour had withdrawn their original returns and submitted entirely new returns in June and April 2003 respectively. This meant the alterations they had made could not be audited.
While Fianna Fáil candidates had signed written undertakings to allocate 50 per cent of their spending limit to the party to be spent on the national campaign, those undertakings had to be seen in the context of an arrangement, endorsed by the Fianna Fáil leader, Mr Ahern, whereby some candidates in marginal constituencies would be permitted reduce that 50 per cent amount, Mr Dolan added.
Such an arrangement was reached in relation to all three Fianna Fáil candidates in Cork South Central - the Minister for Health, Mr Micheál Martin, Mr Batt O'Keeffe and Mr John Dennehy. In their case, their election agent was to have access to an additional €6,400 for each of them which figure was to come from the amount they had each assigned to Fianna Fáil.
Mr Dolan agreed with Mr Justice Kelly that a written undertaking, signed by Mr Martin, to assign 50 per cent - €19,046 - of his €38,092 spending limit to Fianna Fáil did not tell "the whole story" in relation to arrangements for assignments in Cork South Central because it did not indicate there was to be a reassignment.
Mr Dolan said he believed a spread-sheet, which recorded the arrangement to allocate an additional €6,400 to the three candidates in Cork South Central, did tell the whole story. He agreed an independent observer who was not aware of the arrangements regarding marginal constituencies would be unable to see the entire plan from those documents. He agreed the presentation of the documents in relation to the arrangements for reassignment of the 50 per cent allocations in Cork South Central was not ideal.
Mr Dolan was continuing his testimony in the hearing of a petition, brought by disability campaigner Ms Kathy Sinnott and Mr Mark Menihane, an elector in Cork South Central, aimed at overturning the result of the general election in the five-seater constituency in May 2002 where Mr Micheál Martin topped the poll.
Ms Sinnott lost the last seat to Fianna Fáil's John Dennehy by a margin of six votes. Ms Sinnott claims Mr Martin exceeded the legal spending limit of €38,092 and that this had a material effect on the outcome of the election. Mr Martin denies the claims.
The essence of Ms Sinnott's case is that Mr Martin assigned half - €19,046 - of his limit to Fianna Fáil, and personally spent €21,430, making a total of more than €40,000, in excess of the limit. She also claims he didn't include in his return all of the expenses incurred from public funds, such as the cost of his special advisers and the cost of the constituency unit in the Department of Health.
Mr Justice Kelly will today hear legal submissions from both sides.
