Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

As the Minister knows, we are on Committee Stage, and as this is our national Parliament we must raise important questions, whatever the consensus. I have personal concerns about the extent to which this has been worked out, its implications and the science behind it. What the Minister has told me is that no one has actually worked out what a candidate might spend money on to get a message across to, communicate with or come to the attention of the general public or the electorate. The science behind the decision was this: some time ago someone fixed, probably equally unscientifically, what the spending limit should be in Dáil elections, so half of that amount for local elections must be right. That is not a science.

Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind is a recollection — I am sure the Minister will correct me if I am wrong — that the Minister has already announced he will reduce the spending limits for general elections. I am sure the Government would, if it could, introduce legislation to allow zero spending by any candidate from any party in a general election. This proposal might even get two cheers from the general public and three cheers from the media. It would enact this if it could, because then constant Government press conferences would be all that was required for its candidates to be elected. This would be close to the politics we have seen over the years in a variety of unfortunate dictatorships across the world.

The Minister is telling us that an unscientific figure was agreed on for the general elections which was essentially divided by two to work out an appropriate figure for the local elections, but that the figure will probably be reduced again for the next general election. I suggest to the Minister, on the basis that we cannot stop spending entirely, to ensure that Fianna Fáil, which the Green Party is propping up in Government — the most incompetent Government in the history of the State, with which we are cursed at this moment — remains permanently in government by imposing a maximum spending limit of €500 for any candidate in the two year lead-in to the next general election. That would be appealing. The Minister might give it consideration, and I am sure someone could work out a scientific formula to support it. What is happening here is no more scientific than that.

I accept Deputy Tuffy's point that there is a serious problem in that a person who is personally extremely rich could try to buy an election through considerable personal funding that does not derive from donations from members of the public who support him or her. There is a history of rich people spending large sums of money on themselves when trying to get elected — not just in this country but elsewhere — and falling flat on their faces. I am concerned there is a misconception on the part of politicians in all parties in the House that this type of legislation provides for a level playing field. It does not. What it does is to give an inordinate advantage to whoever happens to be in Government — and the way we are going, even if the entire island of Ireland was taken over by the IMF and the financial group of the European Commission, the Green Party would still be attached by an umbilical cord to Fianna Fáil and keep it in Government — by ensuring a monopoly in the communication of political information vested in Government Ministers and Departments. The Minister studiously avoided talking about all the advisers attached to his and other Departments or spending on consultants and press conferences.

I could not seriously deal with the zombie issue earlier, because I find the whole thing so ludicrous. However, this is a serious point. In the lead-in to the local elections, how many press conferences will we see in individual constituencies with candidates anatomically attached to Ministers — appearing out of their left and right earlobes, attached to their legs, hands and everywhere — in the vague hope they will be in a picture or will get themselves on the 6 o'clock or 9 o'clock news on RTE or the 5.30 p.m. news on TV3? All these things are about candidates trying to raise their profiles in their own constituencies.

The Minister is well aware that parties in Government have an inordinate advantage in promoting their candidates, although perhaps not when a Government is as utterly incompetent as the present one. It may be that the zombie formula attempted in the Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis will not be utilised by the party's local election candidates given what I hear about their attempts to portray themselves as pseudo independents when they knock on voters' doors. They know nothing about what the Government is doing, do not support many of its policies and are opposed to everything that has a detrimental impact on people. They are even opposed to measures that have not yet been announced and will disagree with the budget regardless of what it contains. A number of Fianna Fáil candidates are running such disassociated zombie election campaigns. I am not sure that Green Party candidates are much better, although they have managed to uphold the perception that they are opposed to the Government at the same time as being a part of it.

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