Political parties spent close to €300,000 on the Dublin Central and Galway West by-elections, new figures have revealed.
It is the first time that a real-time declaration of spending was required under the EU’s transparency and targeting of political advertising (TTPA) regulation.
Returns published on Monday showed that almost €300,000 was spent in the two constituencies, largely on canvass cards, posters and leaflets, stickers, and clothing for election volunteers.
The Social Democrats spent a total of €36,400 on their campaigns for two candidates, whilst Fine Gael spent €72,000 on Mr Kyne and Cllr Ray McAdam’s campaigns.
Meanwhile, in Dublin Central, the Fianna Fáil spend was €18,050 on their candidate, John Stephens, whilst the party declared an overall spend of €48,000 on both campaigns which included a €7,715 newsletter drop in Galway for their candidate Cillian Keane.
This amounted to a cost of €3.20 per vote for Mr Ennis, €4.25 per vote for Mr Kyne, and €17.20 per vote for Mr Stephens.
Sinn Fein spent just under €32,400 on their campaigns for candidates Janice Boylan and Mark Lohan.
Labour said that it spent close to €26,000 on its campaigns for Helen Ogbu, who finished third in Galway, and Ruth O’Dea.
The Green Party spent €19,200 – which it said was mainly concentrated on Cllr Janet Horner’s campaign for Dublin Central.
Independent Ireland, whose candidate, Cllr Noel Thomas topped the poll in Galway West but missed out on a seat, spent around €15,000. Meanwhile, Aontú spent roughly €16,000, and People Before Profit’s spending came in at just over €14,000.