DUBLIN, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Irish senator Joan Freeman, one of the six presidential candidates in the country, has borrowed a total of 130,000 euros (150,000 U.S. dollars) from her two businessmen friends for her campaign to contest the 2018 presidential election scheduled on Oct. 26, according to a local media report.

The 60-year-old independent politician said that she would return the borrowed money in five years at an interest rate of 9 percent, said the report.

The amount of the money borrowed by Freeman is just part of the 250,000-euro funds she intends to spend on the coming presidential election. The remaining part of the money will come through donations and public fundraising, she said.

Freeman revealed the above-mentioned information in a questionnaire published by the local media RTE on Sunday. The questionnaire was also sent to other five president candidates. The questions asked from these candidates include how much they would each spend on their presidential campaigns, a breakdown of such spendings and the sources of the funds.

Regarding the total expenditures on the presidential election, incumbent Irish President Michael D. Higgins, who is going to compete for his second term of presidency, said that he expected to spend 394,000 euros, a figure temporarily the highest among the candidates who have revealed their funding plans for the campaign, followed by Gavin Duffy, a businessman(300,000 euros), and Liadh Ni Riada, a candidate fielded by the Irish third largest political party Sinn Fein (250,000 euros to 300,000 euros). Riada's planned spending is 50,000 euros higher than Freeman's budget.

The other two candidates, Peter Casey and Sean Gallagher, both from business circles, did not disclose their planned expenditures for their presidential election campaigns. But both of them said that they would not spend more than 750,000 euros, a ceiling ruled by Irish laws for presidential campaign spending.

As for the breakdown of their spendings, President Higgins gave a most detailed report which include 130,000 euros on paid advertising, 50,000 euros on disseminating leaflets around the country, 50,000 euros on supporting key events, 40,000 euros on social media.

Casey said that he would spend at least 30,000 euros on wages for his campaign team, 25,000 euros on advertising, 10,000 euros on social media and another 25,000 euros on other miscellaneous costs.

Riada said that she expected to spend at least 90,000 euros on posters.

The other three candidates, Freeman, Duffy and Gallagher, did not give a specific breakdown of their anticipated spendings, but they all said they would not spend on posters, a common practice employed in local political campaigns.

Answering the question as where their campaign funds would come from, President Higgins said that he would spend 110,000 euros of his own savings on the campaign while the rest of the money would primarily come from small individual donations.The three candidates from business circles said they would use all or part of their personal money for their campaign activities.

Riada said that her party Sinn Fein will borrow a bank loan of 200,000 euros for her campaign with the rest to be balanced by donations.

Nearly all the candidates said that they would not accept corporate donations for their campaign funds, which is very controversial in local politics. (1 euro = 1.16 U.S. dollars)