
John Clendennen is defending being one of the biggest spenders in the country on his election campaign.
An Offaly TD is standing by his decision spend over €30,000 of his own money to secure a seat in last year's general election.
New figures from the Journal.ie show John Clendennen's campaign was among the biggest spenders in the country.
His election outlay totalled €35,000, with Fine Gael contributing just 4.8% of that budget.
Mr Clendennen secured his seat on the seventh count in Offaly, beating Sinn Fein's Aoife Masterson by just 116 votes.
He says it was money well spent: