Almost €1.5 million was spent during last year’s presidential election with Fine Gael declaring the highest expenditure on its unsuccessful campaign by some margin.
Election expenses statements from the three candidates’ campaigns have been published by the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo).
Fine Gael declared spending of some €643,422 in its bid to get former minister Heather Humphreys elected to an office the party has never held.
This includes some €194,552 in spending on advertising and €140,674 on election posters.
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The winner, President Catherine Connolly, was an Independent candidate who had the backing of left-wing parties including Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats. Her campaign declared spending of €446,958 during the election.
Some €181,075 of this was listed in the election posters category with a further €104,203 in spending under the “other election material” heading, including items like leaflets, badges and sweatshirts.
Fianna Fáil – whose candidate Jim Gavin halted his campaign before polling day amid a controversy related to his time as a landlord – declared spending of €392,962.
The party listed the highest spend on election posters – some €229,122. It declared €66,013 on advertising.
Overall, the spending declared by the three campaigns comes to a combined €1,483,342.
The sum is higher than the combined total of €1.36 million in spending declared by six candidates in the race for Áras an Uachtaráin in 2018.
The 2025 total is less than what was spent in 2011, when there was more than €2.3 million in expenditure across seven candidates.
Fine Gael also spent the most in 2011 in its failed bid to get former MEP Gay Mitchell elected, which was previously the most expensive campaign of recent times.
That campaign – which cost €527,152 – did not qualify for any reimbursement of election expenses from the State after Mr Mitchell secured only 6.4 per cent of the first preference votes.
In 2025, candidates were eligible for reimbursement of election expenses up to a maximum of €250,000 if they won or reached more than 25 per cent of the quota.
Fine Gael’s campaign did qualify for a €250,000 reimbursement on this occasion as Ms Humphreys came second with almost 29.5 per cent of the vote.
When the reimbursement is taken into account, the party’s loss on the election amounts to some €393,422, slightly higher than Fianna Fáil’s loss.
With Ms Connolly winning the presidency with an enormous 63.36 per cent of the first preference vote, her campaign also qualified for the €250,000 reimbursement from the State.
Fianna Fáil’s candidate, former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin, stopped campaigning in early October after revelations that he owed a former tenant €3,300 in overpaid rent. Mr Gavin subsequently repaid the tenant.
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His name remained on the ballot paper and the Fianna Fáil candidate got just 7.2 per cent of the vote. The party did not qualify for any State reimbursement of its election expenses.
An internal Fianna Fáil review into its disastrous campaign was published last month.
It contained no new damning facts about the campaign, but there was a tense and at times angry meeting of the parliamentary party after its publication.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who had strongly backed Mr Gavin to be the party’s candidate, defended himself at that meeting.
Mr Martin appeared to have quelled any immediate threat to his party leadership amid questions raised about his future in the role by some backbenchers after the election.
