How times have changed. A 50-page booklet laying out donation and expenditure rules for candidates and political parties in the June Euro elections has been published by the Public Offices Commission. It is available free, and in these days of suspicion, innuendo and inquiry will be avidly perused by all concerned. Failure to comply could see the culprit not only before a dreaded tribunal, but actually in the dock. A cap on election expenditure came in during the lifetime of this government and has operated in three by-elections. This is the first time the rules have applied to a national election, and while they are pretty stringent the size of the four Euro constituencies means the expenditure limit is high, although the donation limit remains the same.
Donations over £500 in money, property, goods or services must be disclosed, and those from the same person must be aggregated; the expenditure limit for each Euro candidate is £150,000, which can be divided between the candidate and the party; the party can use some of that money to fund the national campaign; a candidate who is elected or who saves their deposit gets a refund of up to £30,000 provided they can prove they spent the money on the campaign. The refund comes from the Exchequer and is not taxed. There is no expenditure cap on local election spending but the £500 disclosure rule does apply. With 1,900 seats to be filled, such a cap would be an administrative nightmare.
There is also a by-election pending, in Dublin South Central. Because of infighting in the constituency, it is unclear when Labour will move the writ to fill the seat left vacant when Pat Upton died in February. It will probably be the autumn. As it's a four-seater, there is a rule on spending which means a cap of £17,000 per candidate. Accountants and bookkeepers are much in demand all round. Are, for example, pints and sandwiches in the pub after a canvass declarable or indeed reclaimable as a legitimate election expense?