SAVINGS OF up to €10 million could be made by the exchequer if candidates for the presidency issued a joint postal message during the campaign, Independent contender Seán Gallagher has said.
At present, each candidate issues a separate leaflet to voters, which is delivered by An Post.
The cost of postage is paid out of State funds.
There are three other declared candidates apart from Mr Gallagher – Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell, Labour’s Michael D Higgins and Independent Mary Davis – but there may be up to three others by the time the writ for the election is moved.
Mr Gallagher said there were 3,078,032 voters on the electoral register. The cost of delivering leaflets for seven candidates was €11.63 million, while the cost of delivering one collective candidate leaflet would be €1.66 million.
“Every candidate and political party is provided with free postage for their leaflet, the Litir um Thoghchan [election letter], distributed to every voter in the country,” Mr Gallagher said in Dublin yesterday.
“An Post is reimbursed by the exchequer. Even with reduced postal rates because of bulk purchase, the costs could run to between 44 cent and 54 cent a leaflet. This can often result in up to 30 pieces of literature, many of them duplicates, going into a household where a number of registered voters live.”
The businessman and Dragons’ Den panellist proposed that “one postal leaflet detailing all election platforms of all candidates would offer major savings for the public purse and the environment”.
Asked if he would take a voluntary pay cut in the event of winning the election, Mr Gallagher said he would accept whatever salary level the Government decided. “It’s not about the salary for me, it’s very much about the job of work that needs to be done.
“What would happen if somebody stepped forward who was independently wealthy and said, ‘I’ll do this for nothing’?”
Meanwhile, Labour’s Michael D Higgins has expressed sadness at the news that the Irish Post, which served the emigrant community in Britain, is to go into liquidation. He said that, for those living in Britain, the closure of the weekly newspaper meant “the cutting of a hugely important tie linking them to those who remain in Ireland”.