John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

However, the seven day period has worked well. The best way for any candidate to approach this matter is to ensure that, if he or she has a team that is paid to put up posters, the contract includes their removal also. That is happening increasingly and it seems to work fairly well. I have been impressed by the way in which all political parties have approached this matter. For the most part, they have complied with the seven day rule. Deputies will be aware, however, that some mischievous individuals sometimes take down a candidate's poster and, for the fun of it, put it up again after the seven day period has elapsed. That is happening and if the individuals involved can be caught that is fair enough; otherwise there is very little one can do about it.

Yesterday, Deputy Higgins took exception to the view — which I do not hold — that somehow election posters constitute litter. They do not, of course. They are a means of advertising a candidate, but they do become a litter problem after a certain period. One of the major issues I am trying to address concerns plastic ties that hold posters in place. Very often the posters are removed after an election, but the plastic ties are left there. The problem with making their removal voluntary is that people do not feel obliged to do it. I would have hoped for good co-operation between local authorities and candidates. I wanted to ensure that we either had recyclable tags or biodegradable ones, so we are examining this matter. Alternatively, we could have identifiable tags so we could know to which party they belonged. That is the way to approach this matter. It is not my intention to curtail freedom of expression in any way. Posters add an air of excitement to a campaign and let people know that an election is taking place.

In the past few elections there has been a problem with the proliferation of posters. Some postering is excessive. One poster per pole is fine but I have seen candidates on the evening an election is declared putting up three posters on one pole just to prevent other candidates using the spot. There is a need for some form of regulation. We are satisfied the seven-day limit in place is adequate and ensures poster-free lamp posts all over the city quickly after an election.

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