A Fianna Fáil general election candidate has taken a High Court challenge to legislation which, he claims, discriminates in favour of candidates who are already members of the Oireacthas or MEPs.
Mr Desmond Kelly, Moyglass Park, Lucan, is a candidate in Dublin Mid-West. He complains that, under current electoral legislation, services or facilities paid for out of public funds to TDs and MEPs are exempted from being treated as electoral expenses.
Mr Justice McKechnie yesterday gave Mr Kelly leave to seek, by way of judicial review, a declaration that any limit on election campaign spending which is imposed must be equal for all eligible candidates for Dáil elections.
Mr John Rogers SC, for Mr Kelly, said it appeared that the Oireachtas had made an express exemption for services available to senators, TDs and MEPs. These services might be used for election purposes and could not be reckoned when it came to the Public Office Commission deciding the election expenses of a candidate. Such services included office, secretarial support, free postage, computer and fax facilities. The effect was that office-holders were in a significantly more favoured position regarding election expenses. These services were not available to non-Oireacthas candidates.
Mr Kelly argues that the Oireacthas has no discretion to impose a discriminatory code preventing one candidate expending the same monies as another candidate.
It was his understanding that members of the Oireacthas had an allowance of up to 1,750 prepaid envelopes a month and that it was common practice for such envelopes to be used for electoral purposes. In past elections, outgoing members of the Dáil had been allowed access to Dáil Éireann facilities such as free telephones, fax facilities, photocopying and other secretarial facilities.