Postering before election called does not break law, council says

Politicians who put up posters before the election is called are not breaking the law, according to one local authority. While councils in Dublin and Wicklow have ordered the removal of election posters in recent weeks, Limerick City Council says it has no legal basis for such action.

The council says it has received "bucketloads" of complaints about the premature postering of the city by politicians from the main parties. As well as giving an unfair advantage to some candidates, residents say some of the posters are a hazard to road safety. However, the council's executive engineer Paul O'Grady said the legal advice the council received was that such postering does not break the law. The Litter Pollution Act, 1997 exempts posters "relating to" an election from a general ban, but stipulates these must be removed within seven days of a poll. However, it does not say when politicians can start putting up posters in advance of polling day.

"We come down very hard on posters that stay up too long after the election, but we're adrift as regards the legal position before it. We don't have a stick to beat them with, legally," Mr O'Grady said.

The council tried to get candidates to agree a protocol limiting postering, but Mr O'Grady said it gave up because: "We realised all it would take was one of the many candidates to break rank and all would follow suit."

The Department of the Environment has issued no advice to local authorities on election postering and says it has no plans to review the issue. Litter laws must be enforced at local level, a department spokesman said. He denied a loophole existed in the law, but admitted it was "open to interpretation".

However, Green Party environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe said there appeared to be a gap in the law. "I don't think people want to see posters up just yet and they don't want to see too many of them. But we also have to have a level playing pitch."

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour election posters have appeared across Limerick city and county and parts of Tipperary. In Limerick city, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea has the largest posters and the most postering. However, a spokeswoman for Mr O'Dea said he had not breached any laws.