Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government when spending limits for the local elections in 2009 will be agreed, published and introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2918/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I intend to bring forward proposals in the near future for legislative change to allow for the introduction of spending limits at local elections. It is my intention to have the limits in place for the local elections to be held this year. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to examine spending limits at local elections as part of the Green Paper on Local Government. Submissions made in the course of preparing the Green Paper, published in April 2008, were generally supportive of some kind of expenditure limit.

In October 2008, I consulted the Joint Committee on the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the issue of spending limits. A policy research document prepared on behalf of the Committee and presented at that meeting offered useful practical guidance. There are a number of complexities that need to be considered, and I discussed these with members of the Committee, and I am taking them into account in the preparatory work now under way.