Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the total cost of the 2011 Dublin West by-election; if he will provide a sub heading breakdown of the costs and the cost of holding a recount as ordered by one of the candidates. [21392/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Returning Officers are required to submit accounts to the Department of Finance within six months of holding an election. The final accounts for the recent by-election were submitted this week and will be examined in detail. I am advised that a single bank account was used for the by-election, the Presidential Election and the Referendums, which were held simultaneously. General costs, such as staff, premises, preparation etc will apply to all of these events and as such it will not be clear from the final accounts which costs relate specifically to the by-election.

However, I have been informed that some €92,000 in costs were incurred by the Returning Officer purely as a result of the by-election. This includes Returning Officer fees, fees for one additional Poll Clerk per ballot box, count staff, clerical and administration costs. In addition, some €274,707 was incurred for the free-postage scheme for candidates and some €10,460 was incurred by OPW.