South Dublin CEO issues orders not to go ahead with fines for illegal posters
By Mary Dennehy
THIS week poster-gate continues after the CEO of South Dublin County Council allegedly instructed litter wardens not to issue any fines in relation to the early erection of election posters, The Echo can reveal.
Dublin Mid-West Labour TD Joanna Tuffy and Templeogue Labour councillor and Dublin South West candidate Pamela Kearns both came under fire when their election posters went up the day before Taoiseach Enda Kenny revealed to the nation that February 26 would be polling day.
Under legislation, election posters could only be erected from the date the polling day order was made which, in this case, was Wednesday of this week, with Deputy Tuffy’s and Cllr Kearns’s election placards being hung prematurely on public poles on Tuesday.
Cllr Kearns told The Echo: “Initially I thought over-enthusiastic campaign supporters put my posters up early, obviously under the belief that the election was going to be called on Tuesday.
“However, I since learned that the constituency office paid a contractor to erect 200 posters the day the election was called.
“This contractor sub-contracted the job to another guy, which he wasn’t supposed to do, who jumped the gun.
“I appreciate how annoying this can be for people and thankfully when I explained the situation to those who contacted me, they understood.
“I’m not sure how the council will look at this, whether they’ll fine me or see that I had nothing to do with it, but I can’t influence that.”
Deputy Tuffy was also blasted for the erection of early posters and she told The Echo: “I took as many as I could down and I lost a lot.
“A group of people in a van were spotted taking my posters down and they had nothing to do with the Labour Party or the council.
“We thought the election was going to be called on Tuesday – we made a presumption, a mistake, and I’ve since apologised to the litter warden.”
However, an email, which The Echo has seen, circulated to council staff on Tuesday relayed an instruction attributed to the Chief Executive Daniel McLoughlin that, at this time, no fines were to be issued in relation to the erection of election posters prior to the announcing of the General Election poll date.
The email continued: “Therefore no fines are to issue to any candidates until further notice, and any that have already been written up will be cancelled accordingly.”
Tallaght Independent councillor Dermot Richardson, who was made aware of the email, said: “I can’t believe this email went out to the litter wardens and environment department.
“It goes against legislation and is a disgraceful decision by the CEO who, it appears, is going above legislation.
“This gives an unfair advantage to candidates and no matter what the excuses are, these posters are in breach of legislation and fines should be given.
“I’m not running in this election but this decision has really annoyed me and I’ve contacted the CEO.”
When contacted by The Echo, the council did not refute the emailed instruction and said: “The council will exercise its powers where there is clear and unambiguous breaches of [the] regulations.”
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