Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

I was going to qualify it. Things are never black and white. The Minister seems to think that one has to agree with him entirely, or else one is against him. That is not the way it is.

There are complications in respect of the alternative. If we were to do what Deputy Shatter is proposing and we did not bring in these kinds of limits, then people could spend much more in a local election than they could for a defined period in respect of a general election. Therefore, an anomaly already exists. I have run in local election campaigns where the candidates have spent more on local elections than the limits prescribed here. They have had jeeps painted with their names and they have handed out products at schools and train stations. They have plastered themselves all over billboards and have spent an obscene amount of money. Only certain candidates can do this. We should limit the spending of rich people and people with access to the support of corporations.

Deputy Shatter raises a valid point, but I do not agree with him entirely. We need to take on board the issues he is raising. Will the Government promote itself at the next election? During the last general election, we had to cost the Oireachtas envelopes we used and we had to repay the State for that. However, the Government can use whatever machinery it likes during the local elections, and it will not be costed. Even though it might promote its candidates, that will not come into this expenditure at all. If we had more time to deal with this Bill, we could have teased out the issues and try to insert provisions to deal with those problems.

The Labour Party still supports these expenditure limits. It is a relief to most candidates to see expenditure limited for some of the time. Spending money on elections eventually brings diminishing returns. I accept that there is statistical information about the more money spent bringing more votes, but one finds that money starts going down the drain as people begin to ignore the billboards, the photographs in bus shelters and so on.

This Bill contains good provisions but Deputy Shatter has raised valid issues about the Government's use of its own resources to promote the political parties within that Government.

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