35. Are there provisions for any other form of indirect public funding?

Some election candidates who were already public representatives (e.g. MEPs, Senators and local authority members) might be required to communicate with their constituents during theelection period. Similarly, outgoing members of the Dáil (or Dáil candidates who are Senators) also have residual constituency business to conduct. In such cases, it appears to be difficult to clearly distinguish what constitutes reckonable expenditure for electoral purposes and other public representative activity. Arising from Irish case law, where property, services or facilities are used for electoral purposes during the election period and the costs were originally met out of public funds, such costs must be accounted for as election expenses at their full commercial value. In accordance with the Oireachtas Commission (Amendment) Act of 2006, statutory guidelines on the use of Oireachtas facilities for outgoing members of the Dáil have been introduced in order to identify and notify to members the services and facilities which would or would not be available to them following a dissolution of the Dáil, as well as to set out how members would be required to certify (on the basis of their own self-assessment) and reimburse the Oireachtas Commission for the use of publicly funded services and facilities other than in respect of duties as a public representative. The aforementioned guidelines mainly concern those services and  facilities which continued post-dissolution, i.e. secretarial staff, use of office and ICT equipment, access to Leinster House offices and use of telephone and copying facilities. The guidelines also cover the use of facilities which ceased to be available on dissolution but which could be retained for use following dissolution, e.g. material printed in the Leinster House printing facility, pre-paid envelopes and stationery.

Source: GRECO (2009) Evaluation Report on Ireland, Transparency of Party Funding (Theme II), p. 9.