Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Through the party leaders allowance and funding povided under section 17 of the Electoral Act, 1997. Expenditure on the parliamentary leaders allowance, Electoral Act funding and payments to Independents amount to approximately €7 million, €5.5 million and €800,000, respectively. The figures are relatively stable year on year. When one considers the moneys that go through the finance accounts and which come from the Exchequer, they include returning officers' expenses, the reimbursement of expenses to candidates and election postal charges. If one adds in Referendum Commission costs when referendums are held, the variance is incredible. It varies from €15.5 million in 2013 to €65 million in 2011, when there was a general election. It reflects the number of elections. In 2011 there was a general election and a presidential election and referendums were held on the same day as the presidential election.

There are other instances when two referendums have taken place in the same year and then there are European and local elections to consider. The position is quite variable but the amount involved comes in at between €15 million and €65 million.

One of the things that have struck me, as both an auditor and a member of SIPO, is the complexity of the onus on political parties and public representatives to account for the moneys they receive as a result of the fact that such moneys come under several guises and have to be accounted for discretely under separate guises. There is a clear distinction between ongoing political funding for administrative purposes and moneys that are spent in the course of electoral campaigning, which is not funded from the public purse. I think and I hope that the accounting for political parties, which will kick in with effect from this year and which will be reported from 2016, will bring a bit more clarity to the entire exercise involving the provision of public funding and the accounting for that. There will need to be a distinction in the accounting between moneys for administrative, normal and ongoing purposes and campaign funding. The guidelines that have been issued by SIPO require that kind of distinction to be made. As stated, comprehensive reporting by political parties will be a major step forward in terms of knowing what is spent and how it is spent.