The judgment related in the main to expenses arising from any service or facility provided for me by virtue of the fact that I was an elected representative. This is true of other Members also. Prior to the judgment, candidates from all parties and their election agents were entitled to assume that the rules on spending were as set out in the relevant legislation and reflected in the guidelines published by the commission. Any overspending in my case – I was €1,500 over the limit – was inadvertent. There was no wilful act on my part which could be interpreted as not being in compliance with the guidelines until the High Court judgment on the eve of the poll. On that basis, no overrun could have been foreseen by me or the commission, a position it accepts entirely