In making its decision the commission was mindful of the fact that it was a defence against prosecution for overspending that a person could not reasonably have known that he or she had incurred election expenses above the statutory limit. It decided that if an overspend was incurred specifically as a result of the judgment, it would not be recommending to the Minister for Finance that the amount of the overspend should be deducted from the reimbursement of election expenses payable to the candidate or from the Exchequer funding payable to the political party.