The Minister for the Environment has ruled out capping expenditure by candidates in next year's local elections.The Minister for the Environment has ruled out capping expenditure by candidates in next year's local elections.
Mr Cullen said experience had shown that local authority candidates did not spend significant amounts of money. "The introduction of limits would create additional bureaucratic procedures which are not justified in this case."
The Fine Gael spokesman on the environment, Mr Bernard Allen, said that evidence available from studies done on elections showed that the number of votes won by a candidate was proportionate to the amount invested in the campaign.
"Despite his reservations about introducing a limit, does he agree that a major anomaly exists because a limit on campaign spending of approximately € 40,000 applies to candidates in a five-seat Dáil constituency while candidates in a local election could spend € 40,000 or € 400,000 on their campaign?
"Anybody who has the necessary resources, or puts his or her mind to getting elected, will get elected by spending money and entertaining constituents, as many candidates are already doing."
Mr Cullen said that following the 1999 local elections, a large sample of expenditure returns was analysed and the reported expenditure was low. The average spent by candidates in corporation elections was € 2,981, while the figure in the case of borough corporations and urban district councils was € 635. In the case of town commissioners, the figure was € 311.
Pressed further by Mr Allen, the Minister said: "I have travelled extensively throughout the country in recent months. What will win people elections far more than anything else is the use of shoe leather and knocking on doors."
