An absence of spending limits for local election candidates will give a "carte blanche to speculators to bankroll their chosen candidates", the Green Party leader, has claimed in the Dáil.
Mr Trevor Sargent called for a "useful and very simple piece of work" to apply a spending limit to next year's local elections to avoid a repeat of the "outrageous spending" that had ended up in the planning tribunals, and the "Mr Insatiables" yet to be discovered.
Otherwise he said, the developers would fund their candidates "in the hope and expectation that once elected they can propose whatever hugely profitable rezoning they wish, regardless of good planning, regardless of the burden placed on local communities".
However, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, rejected his claims and said there "is no evidence whatsoever that any local election candidate in any way abused" the system. The Minister for the Environment and Local Government would be putting regulations in place for next year's elections, the Taoiseach said. He pointed out that under the 2001 Electoral Act local candidates will "have to have an account, there is a cap on what you can take on a donation and you have to record it".
Candidates receiving a donation of more than €127 will have to have a political donation account and successful candidates will have to "make an annual donations statement to the local authority".
Local election candidates, who worked for their communities were not "in the business of falling into the hands of developers".
He added: "There is a lot of evidence that candidates keep well away from any of these decisions even when it would be better that they would involve themselves in trying to make some of these decisions." The average amount spent in the last election was €2,700 said Mr Ahern. He later added that "candidates have to give full accounts and there's plenty of people watching what they do and don't do. But the figures, I think, across the average was under €1,000."
Mr Sargent said the "faith he puts in human nature" was "very laudable", and asked if the Taoiseach had learnt anything from the tribunals. He said that in the last local election one known Fianna Fáil candidate put down zero for their expenditure.
"Is the Taoiseach not going to learn from these lessons and put a limit on local election spending where currently somebody can spend not €31,000 but €310,000 if they wish, or if a developer friend wants to give them the money in advance for favours to be rendered in the future."
Mr Ahern stressed that an "administrative system for thousands of candidates would not be possible and I don't think it's necessary either".
