*Photograph: Joe Buckley
A TOTAL of €106,352.35 was the spend by the 28 elected members of Clare County Council in their declaration of expenses for last year’s local elections.
The Clare Echo has analysed the disclosure of donations and expenditure, spending limits and political donation accounts by the fifty nine candidates that put themselves forward for election twelve months ago.
Of the 28 successful candidates, their combined bill amounts to €106,352.35. Joe Cooney TD (FG) who has gone from the Council to the Dáil was the only candidate not to declare a cent despite completing the self-declaration form.
Areas included in the declaration form include election posters, leaflets, transport, hotel stays, room rental, office and stationery, advertising in local media, use of communications consultants, market research and campaign workers.
Candidates do not receive a refund of expenses. Candidates can get a nomination deposit returned if they are non-party and reach the required quota.
Kildysart native Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) who took the final seat in the Ennis MD racked up the biggest bill in the county at €8243.60. In his second election, Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) saw his expenses soar to €8049.90 in the Ennistymon LEA.
Poll-topper in the Kilrush LEA, Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) had the third highest bill at €6983.39 followed by running mate Cllr Michael Shannon (FF) with €6780.00.
Making his return to politics was no cheap run for Cllr Tony Mulcahy (FG) who took the seventh and final seat in the Shannon MD after running up costs of €6312.90 during the campaign.
Rounding out the top ten spenders were Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) with €6,266.49, Clllr Dinny Gould (IND) on €6125.90, Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) with €5067.80, Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) with €4984.34 and Cllr Michael Begley (IND) on €4651.55.
By electoral area, the total claims for successful candidates amount to €26,128.00 (Ennis MD), €25,236.63 (Kilrush LEA), €21,648.83 (Shannon MD), €21,182.39 (Ennistymon LEA) and €12,156.50 (Killaloe MD)
In Clare, a total of 59 candidates contested the local elections, unsuccessful candidates who did not reach the quota are not reimbursed. The total claim with all candidates includes rises from €106k to €148,886.40.
Some of the unsuccessful candidates to take a hit in the coffers were Amanda Major (IND) €5400, Hilary Tonge (SD) €4864.12, Fiona Levie (SD) €3881.50, John Hill (II) €2838, Therese Doohan (FG) €2579.99, Martina Cleary (SF) €2324.38 and Kevin Hassett (II) €2310.
Spending over €8,000 was necessary according to Cllr Tom O’Callaghan. “I was adamant I wanted to win a seat and I felt it was possible, it was a challenge for Fianna Fáil to win four seats in Ennis but we did. This was all from my own funds with no donations. I take the job very seriously, I was on the road for many months, my first biggest challenge was to get out of Clarecastle where there is a strong base of candidates and that was always going to be difficult for me coming from West Clare so I had to spend money”.
Of his total figure, O’Callaghan spent €6,400 on advertising, from this €1,597 went to Realprint for printing flyers, €1,551 was for a leaflet drop within The Clare Echo newspaper with further adverts in The Echo and The Clare Champion plus a fee to his party. “I can’t say I’d do anything differently, it is a big area and I needed to put my feet on the ground by getting literature out. I felt the only way to get the message out to the public was in print, I went the old way by supporting the local media as much as I could”.
Injury curtailed Cllr Joe Garrihy (FG) from canvassing in-person requiring a greater spend. He had the second highest claim of the Clare councillors. “I spent a lot of money because I was offline in terms of canvassing with my hip so I couldn’t do traditional canvassing, I had to spend money on flyers and social media, I had to spend more money than I’d like because I wasn’t mobile and couldn’t get around so I compensated by using social media. This approach also saw him pay Miltown Malbay based Hynesight Video Production €1,500 for a campaign video.
Election posters saw the Lisdoonvarna man incur costs of €2654 which he feels needs to be more regulated. “When you get to it then it becomes a comp, I think we have to limit the amount of posters, it became a concern for me when I couldn’t get around and you end up in a spiral of having to compete when someone else who gets a second blast of posters. It is a good part of the process and of democracy but it can get farcical and you get in the spiral of being in an adrenaline rush of trying to get elected, you get caught up and end up getting another batch. It should be limited so everyone only has a certain amount and that there is a shared surface”.
In East Clare, the experienced Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) had the highest spend with over €2,500 on election material alone. “I paid for everything myself, I printed my own leaflets, I’ve never used the party system and I am more comfortable telling my own story”. He said the majority was spent with RealPrint to print 5,000 leaflets for a localised drop.
