Talk of money is everywhere in the election debate, mostly in the form of promises of bumper giveaways in the year ahead. We hear less about money being spent in the campaign by parties and candidates. This is at least in part because when it comes to political finance, following the money in Ireland is functionally impossible. This is corrosive to democratic trust and has to change.

In Ireland we have built a campaign finance system based on a combination of restrictions and transparency, designed to incentivise civic behaviour and expose misdeeds. Yet as someone who has tried to navigate it, I have found the system to be antiquated, dysfunctional and mind-bogglingly frustrating.

We may complain about being littered with leaflets and soundbites during this three-week period, but campaigning is one of the main ways that we as the electorate learn about who is running and what they stand for.

But campaigning isn’t free and even the most bootstrapped campaign will incur costs. Election posters cost about €8 each, plus a few euro more if you want to pay to have them hung. This adds up. Sinn Féin’s head office declared more than €160,000 in poster costs for the European elections, and Aontú claimed about €50,000. Professional outdoor advertising, including things such as billboard and bus ads, cost even more; Fine Gael headquarters spent about €93,000 on these during the Europeans. Then there are the leaflets, which need to be designed and printed, opinion polls, transportation, digital ads, newspaper ads, room hire and, for some,........

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