Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)

It is easy to lament the past and say things were better way back when, but there is a point to be made in trying to engage in proper electioneering as was done in the past. I regret we have come to a point where elections have become so stage-managed and so reliant on glossy literature. I welcome the Bill which marks an important advance in curbing such matters and getting back to the fundamentals of elections and electoral politics generally. The spending limits proposed by the Minister are still substantial. A spending limit of up to €15,000 is quite generous. Within an election, it allows for quite an amount of expenditure on campaigning. I am pleased it will not cover just the four-week electoral period but eight weeks in total before polling day.

Various reports have been commissioned on the conduct of general elections in the past several years, in which spending limits have been applied since 1997. With relatively stable Governments in the past ten years, all election dates have easily been anticipated. Experts in the field have expressed concerns over the glaring problem that electoral spending tended to be front-loaded. Parties and candidates were able to spend for 12 months in advance of polling day making the spending limits obsolete. I am glad the legislation will address this anomaly for local authority elections and hope it will be extended to general election campaigns.

We may, however, not have as long a lead-in for future elections as in the past decade due to growing political volatility. Procedures should be in place for accounting of election spending to extend over a longer period. I accept it will involve complications and pressures for candidates and political parties to step up to the mark to have accounts in order but that is a responsibility that goes with the territory.

I do not agree with the Green Party's posturing over election posters. They are not a blight on our landscape that should be relegated to the past.

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