Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Acting Chair referred to the excitement of elections, and that was a very true statement. The Minister of State is welcome to the House. It is always a pleasure to be here with him because he engages with us and listens to us. That is important in our process. I commend Senator Pauline O'Reilly. We are having this discussion because she brought it before us. It is important.

As speakers from various sides spoke I thought of my election periods and all the times I was told I had better get a poster up because there was none of me in the area, that there were too many posters up and to get them down or that they were too close to the Tidy Towns region and should be taken down. We are all aware of the many comments made on election posters. We need to have the discussion but I am in favour of amendment tabled by Senators Fitzpatrick and Cummins giving a period of time to discuss this rather than rush it.

Even the bigger parties, and I know my party colleagues will agree with me on this, now have to pay most of our election costs. We do not get large amounts of money to buy posters. It is very expensive. Losing an election was a bitter pill for me and my family to swallow, which was followed up with a serious fine from Galway County Council, because it was the Roscommon-Galway constituency, for allegedly having posters up, when they had in fact been taken down. I fought a hard battle with the council. It was only doing its job but it cost me an awful lot of money at a time when I did not have it and had just lost an election. That infuriated me. In one case it was party workers who took down the posters and I took their word for it, but in the other case my brother and I removed the posters. They went back up and we were fined by the local authority. I thought we had to ensure some protection against this. I would like to see this addressed in a Bill so people who definitely have not re-erected posters are not penalised. How we would do it, I do not know, but it is unfair. I am not the only one who has suffered in that regard.

I think I can speak for the vast majority of those who fought local elections with me in Roscommon when I say I do not think any candidate in Roscommon would go into a Tidy Towns area for the past 15 or 20 years. Most would not erect posters on bad or acute bends or put up too many posters. Something I note in my county and have done myself is as follows. I am not a fan of huge posters and think they should be limited but there is a type of board structure used by candidates. One puts up less of them in the county or electoral area. They are tidier and more acceptable.

Senator Dolan, when she was Acting Chairperson, mentioned the excitement of elections. If we were to remove all postering, elections could be very dull. There is a need for them not to go up in rural towns and Tidy Towns regions but I see a problem for the bigger urban areas as well. Senator Moynihan referred to that. Do we not allow people to put up any posters in major towns and cities? I do not think that would be fair.

Senator Moynihan mentioned the poll on the Claire Byrne show some time back. There is no doubt about it. The Irish public does not want towns and villages littered with posters and does not want them in Tidy Towns areas. The vast majority do not want that. We do not have to completely get rid of them, but to put a structure in place to control them. Perhaps a designated area is the way to go. How that would work, I do not know, but it is worth looking at. If we do not rush into this and give a reasonable time for debate, many good views can come from various parties and everybody will get a fair crack of the whip. I do not think anyone in Ireland would disagree with what has been brought forward today in terms of addressing the issue and curtailing posters in certain areas but not getting rid of them completely. I would not like that to happen but it is a good debate to have and interesting to listen to comments from all sides of the House.