Strict limits on election spend urged

Strict spending limits should be imposed on candidates contesting next year's local government elections, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said yesterday.

He said that the Oireachtas committee on the environment should now be asked to consider the appropriate levels for spending limits and that the regulations should be in place well before the next local elections in the summer of 2009.

"The failure to provide any spending limits for local election candidates is now an anomaly in our electoral laws that should be closed as soon as possible.

"The purpose of expenditure limits is to help create a more level playing pitch and the failure to provide any limits for local election candidates favours parties with deep war chests and individual candidates with substantial personal wealth. A candidate's chance of getting elected to a local authority should not be dependent on the size of his or her bank account.

"We know that in the 2004 local elections some candidates spent tens of thousands of euros on their campaigns, sums that simply could not be matched by parties or candidates with more modest resources," he said.