Sir, – As people start to see the flurry of election literature coming in their doors, they may be unaware that it is they that are paying for it and how much it actually costs.
For the European elections, just as for the general, Seanad and presidential Elections, candidates are given the benefit of a paid individualised postal delivery to every voter or household in the constituency. While the candidates cover the printing costs, the delivery by An Post is paid for by the State, ie the voter!
With 19 candidates in Dublin, 17 in Midlands North West and 22 in South, and 1,697,665 dwellings across the State, that is potentially millions of euro being spent to hand-deliver information about each candidate to voters.
Combining these deliveries into a single booklet, with a random order and with no candidate information appearing on the cover pages, would literally save us all millions of euro in unnecessary election costs while preserving access to the electorate for those candidates of limited means.
It’s long past time that this simple and cost-effective reform was implemented. – Yours, etc,
DANIEL K SULLIVAN,
Marino,
Dublin 3.