WE’RE AT THE eve of the presidential polling day, meaning we’re that much closer to finding out who the next President of Ireland will be.
For those that say Michael D Higgins has it secured, with opinion polls indicating that he’s on 68%, there’s another reason to keep an eye on the final result: presidential campaign reimbursements.
If candidates gather a certain minimum amount of votes on polling day, they’re entitled to a limited amount of the money they spent on their campaign back.
And how have the candidates have funded their campaigns? Independent Senator Joan Freeman was given €120,000 from an old friend and businessman Des Walsh to fund her campaign, and has insisted that it’s not a gift, but a loan.
Seán Gallagher, Gavin Duffy, and Peter Casey are funding their presidential campaigns through their own private funds.
Liadh Ní Riada is being funded by her party, Sinn Féin.
Michael D Higgins, who received €70,000 in funding from his former party, Labour, also started an online campaign to raise €50,000 for campaign costs, such as posters and leaflets.
The spending limit is officially set at €750,000 per candidate.
So what do the candidates need to get to be reimbursed?
Candidates can recoup a maximum of €200,000 of their expenses from the State.
But in order to do so, each candidate needs to get a quarter of the quota in that particular election at any stage during the count.
The Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) rules state:
A qualified candidate is entitled to apply for a reimbursement of election expenses. In order to qualify for a reimbursement, a candidate must either:
- be elected, or
- if not elected, the greatest number of votes credited to him/her at any stage of the counting of votes at the election must exceed one quarter of the quota.
Breaking that down further, the quota is the minimum number of the votes that a candidate needs before they’re elected, which is just over 50% in the presidential election (the quota is half the unspoiled votes plus one – more on that here).
So a quarter of the quota amounts to one eighth, or 12.5% of the total unspoiled votes.
In the 2011 presidential election, one quarter of the quota amounted to 221,471 votes votes, where there were 1,771,762 unspoiled votes and 885,882 was the quota.
So in the last presidential election, Michael D Higgins, Seán Gallagher, and Martin McGuinness received a recoup of €200,000 each.
They received 39.6%, 28.5%, and 13.7% respectively in first preference votes. Higgins spent €359,935.48 on his election campaign in 2011; Gallagher spent €323,318.45, and McGuinness €302,563.47.
David Norris (6.2%), Dana Rosemary Scallon (2.9%) and Mary Davis (2.7%) also didn’t gather enough votes to reach the quota and apply for a reimbursement.
Gay Mitchell, who received 6.4% of first preference votes, also didn’t make the quota; Fine Gael had reportedly remortgaged its headquarters on Mount Street in Dublin to pay for his campaign.
To apply for reimbursement, a candidate who has met the quota must submit: a completed presidential election expenses statement/statutory declaration; supporting invoices, vouchers or receipts; completed presidential election donation statement, statutory declaration and certificate of monetary donations.
Only donations above €638 need be reported, making that list of financial statements a little less interesting than you’d imagine.
The latest polls were published on Sunday by Behaviour & Attitudes/Sunday Times and Sunday Business Post/RED C poll. They put Michael D Higgins on 69% and 68% respectively.
In the Red C poll, Sean Gallagher is at 12%, Sinn Féin candidate Liadh Ní Riada is next on 9%, with independent Senator Joan Freeman on 6%, Gavin Duffy on 3% and Peter Casey on 2%.
On that basis, no one but Higgins would be entitled to reimbursements, with Gallagher just about missing out.
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