ELECTION BUDGET:LIBERTAS HAS spent nearly €430,000 in just five weeks on a billboard and poster campaign backing its three European Parliament candidates, according to reliable industry figures.
Nearly €100,000 has been spent on billboards and bus shelter-sized posters on party founder Declan Ganley in the North West constituency.
The official rate-card price for the billboards for Mr Ganley is €73,000, but political advertising is subject to VAT at 21.5 per cent and it cannot be claimed back from the Revenue Commissioners.
However, the majority of the Libertas spend has gone on the party’s candidate for a Dublin European Parliament seat, Caroline Simons. Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Pat Kenny last Tuesday, Mr Ganley claimed that Libertas had spent €70,000 “so far” on his campaign, though this figure would have to include campaign costs besides billboards.
The €430,000 spend since April 6th, according to official rate-card figures, does not include hundreds of smaller telegraph-sized posters, which cost about €16 each to print, erect and subsequently take down.
Despite the advertising downturn, political parties are not able to secure discounts from advertising companies because they are forced to promote themselves within certain dates.
Election spending before April 29th is not counted by the Standards in Public Office Commission, which monitors spending by political parties, though everything between then and June 5th is counted.
Under the rules, €230,000 and no more can be spent on each candidate by their election agent and by a party’s national agent.
No part of a candidate’s spending limit can be transferred from one candidate to another, under the ethics legislation rules.
Libertas booked 92 billboards and 70 smaller displays in Dublin for Simons between April 20th and May 3rd, at a cost of €109,000 and €19,140 respectively, plus VAT, The Irish Times understands.
The number of billboards supporting Ms Simons’s campaign then dropped to 26 between May 4th and May 17th, while 45 “six-sheet” bus-shelter posters were also erected throughout the capital at a cost of €22,575 and €12,238 respectively, plus VAT.
Although the advertising industry is in the doldrums, companies selling billboard space are able to avoid offering rate-card cuts, particularly with clients who have to display during set periods, such as political parties.
In the North West constituency, 19 billboards were put up between April 6th and 19th at a cost of €17,231; and the number was increased to 53 between April 20th and May 5th, at a cost of €31,239, plus VAT in all cases.
Twenty six billboards have been booked throughout the constituency between May 4th and May 17th, though previously-booked billboards often stay up for longer if there is not another advertisement to replace them.
Libertas erected 12 billboards from April 6th to 19th to support its East candidate, Raymond O’Malley, at a cost of €7,041 and increased this to 67 between April 20th and May 5th, at a cost of €42,750, again plus VAT.
From May 6th, Libertas paid for 20 billboards, at a cost of €13,101, and nine bus shelter displays at a cost of €2,454, plus VAT, according to reliable industry figures seen by The Irish Times.
Responding to questions from The Irish Times, a Libertas spokesman said that he would “not get into figures”, but he pointed out that it must work within the €230,000 limit set by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO).
“We will itemise that as required to SIPO. For the pre-campaign, we did a decent sized outdoor campaign aimed at building name recognition for our three candidates.
“This involved bus-sides, billboards, and some shopping centre ads. This was our only pre-campaign advertising spend.
“In terms of numbers, our election posters nationally will number 30,000 by the end of the campaign [minus those which are mysteriously disappearing in the West].
“Our billboard buy pre-campaign was about 150 sites,” the spokesman said.