As our readers will be aware; the 2020 Irish General Election took place on Saturday February 8th, same convening to elect members for the 33rd Dáil Éireann, latter the lower house of Ireland’s parliament. Each one of the 160 seats available were contested, with the Ceann Comhairle (Head of Council or Chairperson) being returned automatically.
For this election, posters were quickly erected by some candidates under cover of darkness, using plastic cable ties, on every perpendicular standing object throughout Ireland, and to the honest eye, it would appear that the election candidates who had achieved least over the past four years created most of the offensive plastic photo-shopped images.
Rules Governing the Removal of Election Posters
The rules governing the removal of such posters are easy to digest, even for politicians.
Posters must be removed within 7 days of polling day. These requirements for election posters are set out under Section 19 of the Litter Pollution Act 1997 and the Electoral (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2009.
There is a requirement for candidates to remove all posters, including any cable ties, within 7 days following a General Election and failure to comply with such conditions constitutes an offence. The responsibility for the enforcement of this litter law lies solely with the local authority, which in this case is Tipperary Co. Council.
Any election posters in place after this stipulated time frame are deemed to be in breach of such legislation and are subject to an on-the-spot litter fine of €150 per poster.
Possibly the main offender of this particular Litter Pollution Act is Professor Dr. Dolores Cahill, a member of the minor right-wing, hard Eurosceptic political party in Ireland, which call themselves ‘The Irish Freedom Party’.
While strongly advocating an exit from the EU, Dr. Cahill’s party claims to be a ‘patriotic party‘, confirming it is ‘pro-natalist and supportive of stable families for procreation’.
The Irish Freedom Party set up 11 candidates to contest the recent 2020 Irish General Election, with none of their candidates being successfully elected. Those candidates fielded achieved a share of first preference votes between 0.19% and 2.06% in their respective constituencies, while their Party Tipperary Chairperson Dr. Dolores Cahill came second-last in the Tipperary constituency, with a mere 521 first preference votes.
This on-the-spot litter fine of €150, would surely assist the Thurles Municipal District’s ongoing weekly cost of filling watery potholes with shovels of dry tarmac.
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