Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

Section 15 amends the local elections regulations of 1995 by inserting articles 11 to 20 in substitution for the existing ones. These articles cover the nomination of non-party candidates at local elections, bringing the procedures into line with those enacted for Dáil elections in the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2007 and proposed in this Bill for European Parliament elections.

The new articles provide for two alternative mechanisms to regulate the nomination of candidates at local elections who are not in possession of a certificate of political affiliation confirming that he or she is a candidate of a political party registered on the register of political parties. The first mechanism is by way of assents, requiring the completion of a statutory declaration by 15 assentors, registered as electors in the relevant local electoral area, which may be witnessed by one of five categories — a commissioner for oaths, peace commissioner, notary public, a garda or a local authority official. The alternative is by way of the candidate or somebody on his or her behalf lodging a deposit of €100 in the case of the election of members of county or city councils and €50 in the case of any other election. A total of 30 assentors are required for a Dáil election and 60 for elections to the European Parliament.

With regard to the assent procedure, the proposal to use statutory declarations provides for a more flexible system. Previously, every assentor had to travel to the local authority office to sign the candidate's nomination paper. Assentor signatures will now be on documents attached to the nomination paper, not on the actual paper. The process will not involve the busloads of people mentioned by the Senators.

In reply to Senator Burke's question about spending limits in local elections, the Minister has stated he will shortly publish a Bill to introduce the spending limits that will be in force for the local elections scheduled to take place on 5 June 2009. There is a sliding scale for the 34 county and city councils, with four separate spending limits based on the population within each electoral area. An upper limit of €15,000 will apply in the most populated electoral areas with a population of 32,501 persons or over, a limit of €13,000 will apply in the county and city electoral areas where the population is between 22,501 and 32,500 persons, and a limit of €11,500 will apply to county and city council electoral areas with a population of between 12,001 and 22,500 persons. The lowest limit of €9,750 will apply to county and city council electoral areas with a population of 12,000 persons or less. A standard spending limit will apply to all 80 of the borough and town councils. Candidates standing for these elections to local authorities will be subject to a spending limit of €7,500. That is the position on the spending limits and the legislation will be published shortly.