The spring hunting referendum and the local council elections together cost €4.6 million, Electoral Commissioner Joe Church said.

He was reacting to figures tabled in Parliament last week indicating that the referendum alone had cost €4.6 million. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna tabled a letter he received from the Electoral Commission entitled ‘2015 referendum expenses’ in which the figure was mentioned. The referendum and the local elections were held on the same Saturday in April.

Mr Church said in a statement that when local council elections were held in conjunction with a national election or referendum it was impossible to determine what each had cost.

“Major examples of this are the production and distribution of voting documents, the service rendered by assistant electoral commissioners in polling stations and the various transport requisites which are tied together,” he said.

News of the €4.6 million bill, double the amount that was spent on the 2011 divorce referendum, led a number of hunters to lambast the anti-spring hunting lobby through the social media for “wasting so much money”.