In the north inner-city, two local election candidates tempt voters with food to come listen to their pitches

As candidates gear up campaigns across the city ahead of the local elections, some are opting for gatherings with food to reach voters.

On 8 May, Fianna Fáil candidate Caio Benicio shared the invite to a barbecue on his Instagram page, with the logo of the MrBikes motorbike repair shop.

“Caio Benicio will be present and explain how he can help our class in local politics here in Dublin,” it says. “Don’t forget to tell your friends. We count on you!”

On 11 May, Benicio was at the north inner-city barbecue.

On 18 May, Fianna Fáil candidate Isabel Oliveira hosted a breakfast at the SugarLoaf Bakery and Pastry Shop on Dorset Street.

“It is a pleasure to be able to offer a delicious morning for my community and also for you to learn about my proposals, ask questions and I also want to listen to each one of you,” said an earlier post from Oliveria, advertising the event.

“We will have lots of snacks and drinks for our community,” it said.

Handing out refreshments or small novelties to voters isn’t new to this election. Ahead of the local elections in 2019, Fine Gael Councillor James Geoghegan gave out granola bars wrapped in campaign merchandising.

But the practice does raise an interesting question as to what local election candidates are allowed to give voters during the run-up to elections, while trying to win their votes – and whether the rules are clear enough.

Especially since local elections have such small margins. In the 2019 elections in the North Inner City local electoral area, voter turn-out was 34 percent. Candidates had to win 1,178 votes to get elected to one of the area’s seven seats.

The rules

Local election candidates are bound by guidelines on donations and expenditure, says a Dublin City Council spokesperson.

Those rules lay out how much candidates can spend in total on their campaigns, and how much they can accept from donors.

How much candidates can spend varies based on the population of an electoral area, with the highest being €15,350 for a campaign with more than 35,000 residents.

It lists restrictions on donation size, as well as what counts as an election expense, including money spent to promote “directly or indirectly” the election of a candidate.

Election expenses include: advertising regardless of medium, costs related to publicity and press conferences, printing election materials, stationary and postage, transport, and market research.

The rules don’t mention expenses for food or refreshments for guests at election-related events.

The Local Elections Regulations 1995 say that “A person shall not, in relation to an election —(a) give valuable consideration to induce a voter to vote, or to procure the election of any person or the vote of any voter”.

But is a barbecued sausage or a cup of coffee or a croissant “valuable consideration”?

The regulations define “valuable consideration” by saying it “includes the giving, lending or agreeing to give or lend, or the offer or promise to procure or to attempt to procure, any money, money’s worth or valuable security or any valuable consideration or any office, place or employment to or for any person”.

Do there need to be clearer rules? “We have no comment, ” said a Dublin City Council spokesperson.

Do rules need to change?

Oliveira said she didn’t have time before the article deadline to talk about the question of perks for voters, or the breakfast meeting.

Benicio didn’t respond to an email asking whether there should be clearer rules, and about the barbecue.

Geoghegan, the Fine Gael candidate, said as he understands it, candidates aren’t allowed to give things away as perks to voters.

“You can brand yourself on stickers, or brand yourself on a poster or, I mean, that is what you can do,” says Geoghegan.

He says he sees a difference between handing out granola bars with James Geoghegan-branded stickers on them, which is advertising, and inviting people to discuss politics and policies with food.

“Hosting a barbecue is not campaigning,” Geoghegan said. “Campaign expenditure is spending money on things that promote you, so it has to be a picture of you, your name on something.”

“It is not giving somebody something, if you know what I mean, it has to be you branded on something,” says Geoghegan. “You can’t really brand yourself on a sausage.”

But what if a candidate invites people to a barbecue to hear them discuss their political ideas?

“I’ve never heard of that, ever,” he said. “I don’t think that’s something that happens.”

Labour Party councillor and candidate Declan Meenagh said he just gives people leaflets. “All I could afford to give people really is a leaflet.”

Meenagh says rules around food and campaigning aren’t really something that has come up for him.

“Certainly people do host a public meeting but it could be quite expensive to do that,” he said.

He does think there should be more debates ahead of the locals, he says, and that it’s sad that there aren’t.

The only one he saw in Cabra/Glasnevin was one put on by the Irish Deaf Society, he said, which was great.

The rise of far-right candidates has had a chilling effect on debate and local campaigns in general, he said.

Green Party councillor and candidate Janet Horner said it can be hard to say where the line is with expenses and hand-outs.

“Like if I buy a pint for a friend after a canvas, is that a payment? Or just a thing that friends do?” she said. But that wouldn’t come out of her campaign expenses, she says.

There’s a bit of a grey area there, she says, although she isn’t aware of hand-outs as an issue that you see right now, she does think that people shouldn’t really want to push boundaries.

There are ethical considerations as public representatives, she says. “The whole point of democracy is  you put your ideas across and people decide if they want to support it or not.”