Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to say a few words on the Bill. It is clearly an effort to limit the amount of money any individual can spend on local elections, and in that context I welcome it. It is important that a candidate is elected for his or her individual ability rather than simply because he or she can spend massively on the election campaign. Local government is extremely important and we must protect it. I will back my colleague in saying there is a need for more involvement by elected representatives, and reform must take place to ensure this occurs. County managers and others simply have too much power at present. I still find it difficult to understand why the limits do not extend further than 50 or 60 days before the election takes place, because in the past significant sums of money have been spent by individuals promoting themselves outside these time limits. The amount of €15,000 is a significant sum of money for anyone to raise, as is the figure of €7,500 which applies to those on town councils. Those figures must be reconsidered as they equate to overspending and are totally unjustified.

It is one thing to impose spending limits, but it is equally important to make sure the controls are properly administered. In the past, county councillors and others only had to provide a simple report on their spending and how they raised the funds. Some of the returns were nothing short of a joke, showing that no money at all had been spent, while those concerned were clearly involved in personal advertising with posters and so on.

Another issue with the Bill is how it ties in with litter legislation. Only last night at a party meeting we had a long and interesting debate on whether parties and individuals within them should use posters. Some people felt strongly that posters should not be used at all, while others felt they should be limited to a few days before the election itself, and only adjacent to polling booths. I do not know whether it would be possible to get an all-party approach on such a proposal but, on a personal basis, I feel this is something we should aim for. The point was made that as far as tidy town committees are concerned, the posters themselves are not the sole problem. Often, when the posters are taken down a day or two after the elections the plastic ties are left behind and are visible on telegraph poles and elsewhere. Coincidentally, this year the elections will take place at a similar time to the tidy town inspections; this is a major issue for some people.

Another issue relevant to elections but not necessarily to this Bill is the extraordinary waste of money involved in paying for storage of the electronic voting machines. It is bad enough that the Government had to waste more than €15 million on the machines, but to continue paying for private storage at a time when the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government cannot afford to fund schemes such as the Carrickmacross sewerage scheme or repair roads such as those damaged around Castleblayney by the building of the bypass is totally unacceptable. While I appreciate the Minister has been in the job less than two years, it is time the e-voting machines were dealt with. The time for hard decisions to minimise waste is overdue.

Returning to the Bill, I notice the administration and oversight of the scheme is an extension of the current statutory responsibilities of local authorities on top of existing arrangements for the disclosure of donations and expenditure on local elections. I hope those structures are kept to a minimum and that funding is provided by the Minister towards this because local authorities, especially in Border areas such as Cavan and Monaghan, are under extremely tight financial budgets due to loss of rates. Regional business premises are either being wound up or closed down due to the general loss of jobs and, in particular, to cross-Border trading. I suggest this Bill ensure that no extra charge is imposed on local authorities for its implementation.

Our recent experience with the Lisbon treaty referendum and the massive spending engaged in by some individuals is ample proof, if it were needed, that there should be a limit on spending in any election or referendum process, whether local or national. It is equally important that funding such as was spent on the Lisbon treaty campaign be fully accounted for so that everyone is on a level playing field. I trust that when the Minister concludes this Bill he will move on to deal constructively with referendums and other elections. My party will be tabling technical amendments to this Bill and I hope the Government will deal with them in a constructive and positive way.

I fully support my colleague Deputy Hayes in his remarks that there is an urgent need for total reform of how local authorities do their business. Local councillors are a marvellous bunch of people and they deserve the right to make decisions in a stronger way. Too much decision making has been taken from them. When I was first on a council, we got a block grant for roads and we could decide where it was spent. Now, when the grant for roads is provided, every inch of road is named. There may be worse roads but county councillors are not in a position to change the allocation. This is an example of where change is required. Councillors need to be given proper power. I support the Bill in general.

See this speech in context