Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I am impressed by Deputy Fleming's ability to make a significant input on an issue that is entirely tangential to the Bill.

Amendment No. 43 relates to section 15(2) of the Seanad Electoral (University Members) Act 1937. That 1937 Act provides that the Minister, now the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, shall prepare a scale of maximum charges for returning officers in university constituencies, and that every such returning officer shall be paid by the Minister for Finance, with the approval of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, out of the Central Fund.

Deputy Fleming makes a good case in terms of rationalising the expenditure. On the last occasion I was in Government, as Minister for the Environment, I introduced the Electoral Act 1997, for the first time putting a cap on electoral expenditure generally.

This is a matter primarily for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government. Obviously, they should look at the cost of elections generally. However, there are two different issues. One issue is whether it is constitutionally possibly to prohibit a person's spending. One can set spending limits within reason, but I am not sure one can be so prescriptive on how persons spend their own money. It is a matter, not for me but for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, to explore and I am sure Deputy Fleming will explore it with him.

As a general rule, I agree there is scope for further limiting the amount of expenditure at elections. Incumbents enjoy advantages in that they might not need quite so many posters etc. If one is introducing a new candidate, it is a different kettle of fish.

People get annoyed if there are five or six voters in a house and each voter gets his or her own, not piece of literature but set of literature. At the last general election my office received several telephone calls from persons stating they did not want any more and I replied that this was the first round, every other party would have it in the system and even if one rang them, they could not stop it because one cannot merely pick out individual houses not to get it as they are delivered uniformly. No doubt it is something Deputy Fleming can raise with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

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