Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

Therefore, abuses predate the establishment of the State and city and county managers arrived after certain abuses that were indeed native, such as, for example, the town clerk who was illiterate who used his barber to take notes as he was shaving him the following day. There might have been reasons for the City and County Management (Amendment) Act and the centralisation of power in it. There is none now. If the Minister, Deputy Gormley, had courage about local government reform, he would have addressed that issue.

I also find unacceptable the notion that the display of posters comes under the litter Act. That is lazy, sloppy and offensive. The fact of the matter is that there are international protections on the right to assemble in public. It is a basic human right to assemble in public, distribute literature and communicate with each other. There has already been an attempt to abuse the litter Act. I had to run a campaign in Galway city to defend the right to distribute bileoga, leaflets that were simply giving information as to meetings and so forth. They were regarded in the exact same way as people selling prams, bedding and furniture. No distinction was made between polluting commercial leaflets and information about a political meeting.

In the exact same way one had another ridiculous notion in regard to the destruction of the public space, that gathering of more than five people could potentially constitute an illegal assembly so one had groups of people pretending they were only part of a group of four or six. I deplore the idea that somehow or another one could use inappropriate legislation, in this case the litter Act, to discuss the right to communicate, give information and to invite people to an assembly, and then in turn the right to assemble itself. Where is all of that coming from?

What is so superior about something covert, about the people who slip around without upsetting anybody, lest we hold a public meeting to say what we stand for? I still conduct after-mass meetings. I am very much in favour of the final rally at parties, should there be one. I am entirely in favour of people saying what they stand for. I do not admire all those candidates who will be going around in a few weeks' time trying to drop the name of their party to say, "I am only so-and-so's daughter" and "I am only so-and-so's uncle" and so forth, with the hope that by dropping the name of the party, as many will on this particular occasion, they can hope to survive politically.

The truth of it is that the more politics we have the better. There is a belief that there is some kind of gentility in the notion that we should have a small discreet poster stuck somewhere that nobody will see it and that is green and superior, when in fact it is one of the weaknesses of the Green Party that it seems to be shrinking democracy rather than expanding it. At one stage it wanted to get rid of the Upper House and it would like to have fewer Members of Parliament, and no doubt it would like a small poster to match. While I am at it, I must say Deputy Gormley's shameful remark, when he suggested that the Green Party is practically the only party that is not involved in appearing before tribunals for receiving money from builders, was particularly unworthy. He knows of the Labour Party and he should not be ashamed or afraid to compete with us.

I am sure the Ceann Comhairle would agree that in the present position in which we find ourselves, the idea that a poster would be up for seven days after an election is hardly the greatest crisis we will face in any of our parishes. For the life of me, I cannot see what is wrong with an official telephoning a particular candidate to say one of his or her posters is up and that he or she will incur a fine if it is not taken down. How is that treating candidates differently from anybody else? It is far from claiming special privilege for people contesting elections. Estate agents and auctioneers will have their signs up for a very long time at the rate things are going and they will not be taking them down in a hurry.

The notion is quite interesting that one suddenly——

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