Dail deputies are strongly opposing attempts to force them to declare as election spending the use of Oireachtas envelopes, free Dail telephones and office facilities during a general election campaign.
In a letter last week to the Public Offices Commission (POC), the Dail's Committee on Procedures and Privileges said the current use during campaigns of envelopes, telephones, photocopying and printing facilities complied with legislation.
However, the commission clearly disagrees. In a letter to the Dail committee the POC's secretary, Mr Brian Allen, doubted why sitting members should enjoy an advantage that others do not have.
"The commission is concerned that where facilities are provided for use in the discharge of parliamentary duties, such facilities should not be used for election purposes at an election," he wrote.
Set up in 1995, the POC first had the job of monitoring the Register of Members' Interests created by the Ethics in Public Offices Act. Today its role has grown substantially.
The POC's attempt to include some politicians' spending between elections flopped this week, when it finally accepted that the Director of Public Prosecutions would never try to prosecute an alleged offender.
It believed that leaflet drops, poster campaigns clearly designed to identify a person as a candidate, should be counted as election spending, even if they took place before the official opening of a campaign.
Under the Electoral Acts of 1997 and 1998, election spending cannot exceed more than £14,453 for candidates in three seat constituencies, £17,550 in four-seaters and £20,648 in five-seaters.
Politicians inside Leinster House are becoming more and more preoccupied with the POC's workings. Record-keeping has never been the strongest suit of many. And the paperwork demands are mounting.
The limits include the spending of candidates and parties' headquarters: "This money is not additional money. The national spending must also be covered by it," said the POC.
If irked, TDs will hark back to last year when the POC thought briefly about including childcare costs as an election expense. Following a speedy rethink, the body quickly dropped that idea.
The Leinster House issue is an awkward one. TDs are paid up until polling day. Leinster House could not be closed because senators remain in office until the upper house election ends.
The benefits are not insubstantial, assuming that people want to use them. In the House of Commons, the authorities there have a simple rule. Two days after a campaign begins, they close the place down: "They just pull the plug on everything," said one parliamentarian. However, the POC does not want Leinster House to close: "That is a matter for the houses of the Oireachtas. The issue is whether a value should be put on the facilities available," said a commission spokesman.
Some TDs privately admit that membership of the club can help re-election chances: "Look, the majority are nowhere near here during a campaign. But there are people who have had supporters in doing canvassing by telephone on free lines," admits one TD.
Under the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1962, TDs and senators get 1,750 prepaid envelopes per month for their duties. For some, it is too many. For others, it is nowhere near enough.
Before the Tipperary South by-election last year, the commission ruled that Oireachtas envelopes had to be declared as an election expense if they were used by any of the candidates. A number later declared them in their list of election spending, including Labour's Ellen Ferris, who was not a member of the Dail at all, and Sen Tom Hayes of Fine Gael. Now, the POC wants this rule extended to cover all elections.
The issue is a sensitive one: "Many of the guys here would try to squirrel away about 200 envelopes a month for the election campaign. That can be difficult, since a constituency query could need four or more letters to sort out.
"How can you tell the difference between a proper use of a letter and an improper use during a campaign. What happens if I write to a constituent about something they asked about before the Dail collapsed," said one experienced TD.
In its letter to the POC, the Dail committee refused bluntly to accept that the use of envelopes, or the Dail facilities should be considered as a donation, or an expense under the meaning of the Electoral Acts. Such a change would "preclude the continuation by outgoing members of the Dail of their duties as public representatives for which they are specifically paid up to polling day", the committee declared.
And it would place ordinary TDs at a disadvantage compared to the 15 Cabinet ministers, 17 Ministers of State, the Leas Ceann Comhairle and senators hopeful of election.
Others disagree: "Elections don't just involve members of the Dail. In the next one, there will be up to 400 candidates who are not. Many of these people are complaining," said one source.