David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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319. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the cost to the Exchequer of each of the by-elections held since the 2011 general election; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28871/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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There have been 8 by-elections to the current Dáil and Seanad which are listed in the following table together with the estimated costs, where available. 

Four of the by-elections were held on the same day as another election event in that constituency and, therefore, the by-election costs reflect savings from a sharing of people and facilities. As a result of changes to the free postage arrangements  for candidates whereby one item of election material was sent to each household in the constituency rather than to each person on the Electoral Register, where possible,  there were also additional savings in  costs for the Dublin West 2014 and Longford-Westmeath 2014 and also for the Dublin South-West & Roscommon South Leitrim by-elections. 

The final costs of the Carlow Kilkenny by-election are not available as final accounts from Returning Officers are not due until six months after the election.