Councillors’ expenses during the local election campaign this year have been published revealing that money does not mean a seat for many councillors.
Councillors expenses ranged from €0 to over €12,000 in their bid to claim or reclaim local authority seats.
Catherine Connery (FG ) spent nothing of her own money on her election campaign this year and was re-elected for the 11th year running this year for Ballyragget electoral area.
However Cllr Andrew McGuinness of Fianna Fail who topped the poll this year spend a whopping €12,718.60 on his campaign to be elected onto Kilkenny county and borough councils for Kilkenny city.
Other members who spent a lot of money and were in the top 10 spenders, but did not reap the benefits of a seat, were Sean Butler who ran for the Labour Party and spent €9,167, Joan Murphy (IND ) of Thomastown electoral area who spent €7.075, Eugene McGuinness who ran as an Independent and spent €4,800 ,and John Eardley who also ran as an Independent for Callan electoral area and he spent €4,600.
Low spenders who still managed to reclaim their seats on the councils included Tom Maher (FG ) of Callan, who spent €378, Billy Ireland (FG ) of Callan who spent just €500, and Mary Hilda Cavanagh (FG ) who spent just €710.
There are limits on spending at local election time and none of the councillors appeared to breach the limits stated, which are different for each electoral area and dependent on party assistance.
