The Tipperary TDs who spent big to achieve General Election success

The amount of money spent by every candidate in the two constituencies in Tipperary for the General Election 2024 has been outlined in a report.

A breakdown of the costs incurred by each candidate in the 2024 General Election was spelled out in a Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) report published earlier this month.
The SIPO report also provided details on what every candidate in the 2024 European Elections spent on their respective campaigns.

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The two biggest spenders across Tipperary South and Tipperary North were long-time Dáil Éireann members Alan Kelly and Michael Lowry, two sitting TDs who contested the election and retained their seats in parliament.
The Labour Party man incurred a total campaign expense of €28,392.76 with Michael Lowry’s campaign costing €24,294.39.

The biggest spender in the Tipperary South constituency was Michael Murphy who pulled off a remarkable campaign to secure the Fine Gael ticket ousting sitting Senator Garret Ahearn and going on to top the poll in Tipperary South. On his way to that electoral triumph Michael Murphy spent €20,274,54

The figures for each candidate were broken down into categories that included advertising, publicity, election posters, other election material, office and stationary, transport and travel, market research and campaign workers.

Alan Kelly had an overall expense of €28,392.76 for his campaign which was made up of €2,440.32 on advertising, €1,702.50 on publicity, €9,259.95 on election posters, €14,740.29 on other election material and €250 on office and stationery.

He also spent €1,702.50 for a video for socials.
Other election material expenses involved expenditure of €2,009 on social media management, and €8,417 on Meta.

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Michael Lowry had an overall expense for his campaign of € 24,294.39.
Of that €9,952.59 was spent on advertising, €10,947 was spent on election posters and €3,394 was spent on other election material.

The Fianna Fáil candidate, Ryan O’Meara, who won a Dáil seat at his first attempt, had an overall spend of €12,557.71. The majority of that expense was incurred on advertising (€6,227.92) and election
posters
(€4,768.71).

The three seats available to candidates in the Dáil Eireann election in 2024 in Tipperary South went to first-time TD Deputy Michael Murphy, Deputy Mattie McGrath and Independent TD Seamus Healy who made a spectacular return to Dáil Eireann at the expense of sitting TD, Sinn Fein’s Martin Browne.

All three incurred expenses to secure the coveted seat in parliament.
Fine Gael candidate Michael Murphy, spent €6,438 on advertising .

ELECTION POSTERS
The Michael Murphy campaign spent a total of €9,586.23 on election posters which covered the costs of the design, production, printing, erection and removal of the posters .

He also spent €1,402.20 on canvass cards and €1,414.50 on car magnets and stickers.
His campaign incurred €787.40 expenses under the office and stationary expenses category.

Michael Murphy had an overall expense total of €20,274.54. The campaign of Deputy Mattie McGrath cost €12,652.68.
He did not incur costs on advertising and stated in his submission that any costs under this heading were incurred outside of the election timeframe.

For publicity Deputy McGrath spent a total of €2,261 .55.
Deputy McGrath spent €916.75 on election poster expenses and spent €2,471.50 on other election material including canvassing cards.

He spent €238 on office and stationary and spent €6,794.26 on fuel and hire of vans. Deputy Seamus Healy spent €10,554.38 on his campaign. Of that €3,870.12 was spent on advertising including car art, roof rack and design of car stickers and badges.
Deputy Healy spent €1,391.13 on election posters and €261.14 on cable ties, giving a total of €1,652.27.
On other election material he spent €4,398 .15 on election leaflets.

On office and stationary expenses Deputy Healy spent €633.84.

There was a bruising battle for the third seat in Tipperary South with Seamus Healy just pipping sitting Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne.

The Sinn Féin candidate Martin Browne had an overall expense of €9,532,34, Defeated Fianna Fáil candidate Imelda Goldsboro, who went on to win a Seanad seat, had an overall expense of €5,351.75 for her Dáil Éireann campaign.
Among the defeated candidates who spent significantly on their respective campaigns were Cllr Michael Brennan and Cllr John O’Heney.

Labour’s Cllr Michael Brennan had an overall expense of €17,995.29. Cllr John O’Heney (Independent) had an overall campaign spend of €12,194.51.