Dan Boyle (Green Party)

One of the reasons costs were kept so low in Cork city was that we were not only able to campaign at doors, but we were well served by local media. We had a community television channel, an RTE local radio station, a commercial station that was talk-based and a national newspaper in the form of The Examiner. Those are not attributes which most candidates have in local elections and, unfortunately, some of those have changed since.

There is unnecessary pressure on candidates in terms of expenditure, particularly with regard to traditional media and in the case of elections to county councils. There is an unfair expectation of candidates, particularly from weekly newspapers in rural areas which see election candidates as a mainstay of their income. While those newspapers are important publications and provide a valuable service to their communities, the fact that candidates will pay large amounts of money on advertising for political purposes does not necessarily mean people will vote for that candidate over another. However, this sort of advertising is still too large a feature in political life here.

By the time we contested local elections again in 1999 — the eight-year gap is a story in itself and, gladly, we left those times behind with the introduction of a constitutional amendment on local government — my budget had increased to £1,200.