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Posters – is the election already on?
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I was home to the Kingdom over the weekend and noticed that posters had sprung up about the place. Mainly diamond shaped Cosaí for Kerry ones on poles (including in Glenbeigh which I thought was a bit cheeky) and larger 6×3 footers for John O’Donoghue and Tom Fleming.
Then as I passed through Croagh on the N21 into Limerick today I noticed Niall Collins of FF had displayed his concern for local school children by attaching his 3 foot by 6 foot poster to their Caution Children Crossing sign. Nice one. While the sign isn’t physically obscured, it is what might be termed visually obscured. You don’t notice the crossing sign because the one right below it is so big and colourful in comparison and takes up your field of view if you look in that direction.
Now I was down (or up) the postering route myself in 2004 so I thought I had some knowledge about what is supposed to happen, i.e. no posters until the election order has been signed. I contacted Limerick County Council and apparently their legal advice is that they can’t bring prosecutions in regard to posters in advance of the election as the legislation is sufficiently vague as to allow someone to argue that there is an election due and it’s a reasonable time to get your name out there.
Meanwhile over in Meath we have rumours of fines of €3000 for putting up posters that is unless you’re Thomas Byrne of FF.
Now it occurs to me that shouldn’t all the local authorities be getting the same legal advice on this? After all this is a national election, and we should be able to rely on the Department of the Environment for some guidance. Oh hang on isn’t that Dock Riche’s department, the man who had a 30ft by 8ft poster up in Wicklow last week without planning permission (you need planning for something that size). What was I thinking…
very good point dan and it feeds into the issue of costs aswell. Spending on posters now is off-book so to speak so naturally it gives opportunity to those with more cash to benefit from a more sustained profile-raising campaign.
I would think though that alongside this the candidates putting up posters could draft them in such a way as to circumvent the law and simply be ‘raising awareness’ i.e. simply omit to say “vote#1″?
But if they are on public poles they should be viewed as litter shouldn’t they? Unless they are advertising a meeting of some sort.
good point dan. they can only use those at election time. Didnt think of that. In which case there is another thing to blame the greens for.
What of the unfair advantage?
I have also seen Nialls’ posters up on road signs. They are quite large and have “Vote Niall Collins on them”. They also have give your second vote to someone written in smaller print on the bottom. I’ve seen the posters many times and I still don’t remember his name. The Power of advertising eh. It’s the big writing that gets you everytime.
Take a photo and report it to the County/City Council litter wardens.
I was passing it on a main road in a bus and so wasn’t able to get out and take a picture. However, as you can see in the original post
“I contacted Limerick County Council and apparently their legal advice is that they can’t bring prosecutions in regard to posters in advance of the election as the legislation is sufficiently vague as to allow someone to argue that there is an election due and it’s a reasonable time to get your name out there.”
I have contacted the local authority and they were sending a man out from Rathkeale to look at it. And you would also see that they have no intention of taking prosecutions with regard to postering in advance of the election unless they are dangerous. So you can expect a free for all to ensue in Limerick East/West in the county areas. The city may decide to take a different view.