John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I agree with many of the points made by the Deputy on the role of posters. They are essential. It was never my intention to ban postering. The intention was to introduce some form of regulation so that we would not have the somewhat chaotic postering we have. It is getting worse with successive elections. We received 117 submissions, including that of the Deputy. Many referred to the plastic tag issue. We are trying to deal with that. Deputy Hogan referred to litter previously. Having a proliferation of plastic tags is a serious litter problem and we want to try to deal with that. We do not want to restrict public speech or people's right to expression. That is not what this is about. However, I have seen candidates putting four or five posters on a pole, which is excessive.

We have come up with a reasonable approach having considered all the submissions made. In my reply I said we would not introduce legislation until we have an idea of what is workable, which is a good approach. In the past local authorities have introduced their own pilot schemes with buy-in from councillors. Residents' associations have asked candidates not to put their posters in particular areas. On the whole we have had the co-operation of the council and councillors.

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