Fifty six general election candidates, including Cabinet members and the Taoiseach, spent above the legal limit in their campaigns, a report published today shows.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was shown to be more than €16,000 over his limit while the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, Mr John O'Donoghue, was found to have exceeded his limit by €28,000.
The biggest Cabinet overspend was by the Minister for Social Welfare, Ms Mary Coughlan, who exceeded her limit by €36,000.
The only Cabinet members who did not breach their spending limits were the Minister for Health, Mr Martin and the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern.
On the eve of last year's election the High Court restricted the amount candidates could spending on their campaigns.
The ruling said that outgoing TDs and senators must include the value of Oireachtas-provided services in their election returns.
However, sitting Oireachtas members fought the last election on the basis that these facilities did not count as part of election spending and hence many may have exceeded the limit inadvertently.
On that basis, the Standards in Public Office Commission said it would not be referring the matter to the DPP.
Several candidates who lost narrowly to sitting members have said they will consider taking legal action to overturn the election result if today's report can be used to show the overspending had a significant impact on the result.
These include Independent Ms Kathy Sinnott, who lost by just six votes, and Labour's Mr Nicky Kelly, who lost out by just 19 votes.
It is significant that Mr Martin, who was elected from the constituency in which Ms Sinnott fought her campaign, was one of the only Cabinet members not to overspend.
Today's report shows that election expenses of €9.24 million were incurred on behalf of political parties and candidates at last year's general election.
The highest expenditure was on behalf of Fianna Fáil and its candidates at €3.5 million while Fine Gael spent €2.3 million with Labour spending €1.1 million.
The PDs spent just under €600,000 with Sinn Féin spending just over €510,000 and the Green Party spending €240,000.
