CANDIDATES placing themselves before the electorate have had to raise between £5,000 and £15,000 to finance their attempt to get elected.
The cost of getting elected to the Dail varies according to geographical location and the size of the constituency, the number of volunteers available and the intensity of the competition between candidates and within parties.
All candidates, from all parties, agree that the single greatest expense is printing. After this comes transport, rent of campaign headquarters with phones, and food and drink for campaign workers. Payment of canvassers appears to be rare.
While there have been allegations of attempts to influence voters through lavish expenditure in public houses, The Irish Times failed to find any candidate who would admit this.
Fianna Fail's Brian Lenihan, running in Dublin West, expects to spend between £10,000 and £12,000 in the election. About £5,000 of this is his contribution to the party's campaign in the constituency, where it is running three candidates. The remainder on the expenses of his personal campaign.
Again, much of this goes on printers' bills, though he made some savings through recycling posters left over from his by election campaign, where he first won the seat.
Just being on the road is costing money, both in petrol and in meals bought for himself and for election workers. "I don't have runners going around the constituency buying drink, but you have to buy drinks for canvassers, and when you're out and about."
He has hired a couple of premises from which to run the campaign in the constituency. "Not very salubrious, but you have to have a kettle and a phone." Telephone bills are also a major expense, and, although he normally does not use one, he has acquired a mobile phone for the campaign.
He does not pay canvassers, and does not think paid canvassers could be very effective. Nor, so far, has he employed people to put up posters, though he might do, since this, like dropping in leaflets, is a task he thinks professionals do better than volunteers. Commercial companies charge about £25 per 1,000 to circulate leaflets.
Asked if he faced a problem of lost earnings, he said that this had already happened following his election last year. A barrister, he finished the cases he had started, but did not take on any new ones.
He has already raised quite a lot of the money he needs through a very successful golf classic. Here companies field teams in a tournament at a cost of £500 a team. He raised about £18,000, of which about £8,000 went on prizes, green fees, a dinner and drinks for the participants. This left almost £10,000 for the campaign.
The Socialist Party candidate in the same constituency, Joe Higgins, is running a bargain basement campaign, costing around £5,000. His party, born of the expulsion of the Militant Tendency from the Labour Party and the campaign against water charges has no access to funds from businessmen, and has not sought any he said. Indeed, if it was offered, it would be sent back.
Nonetheless, it spent between £5,000 and £6,000 when he came close to winning the seat in the recent by election. He expects this election to cost about the same.
Most of this money will be spent on posters and leaflets, he said, and they have access to a small printing machine. "We have a huge amount of voluntary support, and those who are working donate their petrol," he said. "Those who are unemployed or in difficult circumstances would get minimal coverage."
Because Joe Higgins gave up his teaching job to concentrate on politics, he can contribute "zilch" to the campaign himself. He said that the party appealed to its members and supporters and ran functions. "We have things like race nights, quizzes, discos, socials etc. There is a social each election in my home town of Dingle, for example. Each of these events raises about £200 or £300."
The cost of being elected in a rural constituency is much higher than in an urban one. Gerry Reynolds, a Fine Gael candidate in Sligo Leitrim, spent about £15,000 in the last election, and was not elected. Now a senator, he is running again, though he hopes to trim his costs a little this time. "I only paid off the loan for the last election last November," he said.
The bulk of his expenditure went on printing and on transport costs. "I hired three cars last time. My mother, my brother and my first cousin were all canvassing, and we needed extra cars. We also needed petrol."
He has six people working for him this time. "If you have six people on the road they will cost about £100 each a day in petrol, meals, food for local canvassers, drinks etc. It's an expensive business."
He will also have a personation agent in each polling booth. These will be party activists, and will not be paid, but will get about £10 each to buy food for the day. As there are between 80 and 90 polling stations in the constituency, this will cost almost £1,000.
He is fortunate in that he, along with his brother, runs the family business in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, which does not require their daily presence. However, it does suffer when they are away, he said.