Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I put on record the Government's appreciation of the work of the Standards in Public Office Commission in compiling and publishing the recent report on expenses for last year's general election. The commission produced a thorough report and has carried out its job in accordance with its mandate.

I will not go into the history of Electoral Acts and electoral expenses, but it is important to mention that there were limits up to 1963. The provisions in the 1997 Act were more detailed in terms of requirements demanded of candidates, elected Members and political parties. It was inevitable that difficulties would arise in the operation of its provisions because everyone involved was on a learning curve in implementing its various requirements. It is now time to review the Act due to experience gained to date in its operation, particularly as it is perceived by most that said operation has become excessively cumbersome and technical and now imposes a far greater burden of compliance than originally anticipated.

I welcome the opportunity to come before the House to contribute to the debate and to listen to the views of Senators. At least Labour Party Members addressed the issue as they see it, but they are living in a different world to that in which I live. I do not quite understand this talk about huge money. I do not know whether they believe it themselves. It sounds good and they give the impression that they have rehearsed it. The important thing is the amount of money spent and where it comes from. I do not know about all this money from the corporate sector. I must go down to the Galway races some year, for the first time in my life, just to see what it is all about as I hear so many references to it.

One of the things that amuses me is that other political parties pretend they go through elections spending a fraction of what some of us might spend, yet on the ground one always feels they are outspending. Maybe it is the fact that I usually use trade union printers and possibly others do not. I always find it difficult to understand how some people seem to have every lamp-post cluttered and every letterbox stuffed, yet on paper they are spending so little, where the same people are ridiculing me for spending what is largely my own money. It amuses me.

I saw one article written by a journalist at the weekend who was complaining about the fortune in private money being spent. The vast majority of what they call private money is candidates' own money. That is certainly the way in my party. Anything I get is in my election account, which is not too much, but I am sure it is the same in other parties. We should really have some sense and work together instead of going on with this nonsense about huge corporate involvement. This is not the real world that most of us understand.