Campaigners May Be Fined Over Posters
The deadline has passed for the thousands of Lisbon Treaty 'Yes' and 'No' posters to have disappeared from public sight.
They seemed to go up overnight but it looks like the 'No' side in particular have been too busy celebrating their victory to bother freeing the country's polls of the posters.
However, the champagne will lose its fizz pretty soon if Dublin City Council enforces the €150 on-the-spot fine allowed per offending poster.
Under waste laws the movie posters are now considered litter and the council could coin tens of thousands of euro if it prosecutes the offending parties.
Hundreds of posters are still fixed to lampposts, telephone polls and electricity masts across the country.
On a three-mile section of the Navan Road in Dublin alone, the Herald counted more than 50 referendum posters.
Around 40 of the now illegal posters showed Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald urging a 'No' vote.
Two had pictures of Fine Gael MEP Gay Mitchell asking for a 'Yes' vote and more than a dozen other 'No' posters had no obvious origin.
More posters were visible around Doyle's Corner in Phibsboro and there are pockets of posters all across the city.
For the 40 Sinn Fein posters on that short section of road alone, the total fine would equal more than €6,000.
If they failed to pay the on-the-spot fine, the party could be brought to court and fined up to €3,000 per offence.
Under litter by-laws all posters must be removed from the streets within seven days of the event.
After that, the council has full jurisdiction to remove the posters, destroy them and impose the fine.
A spokesperson for Dublin City Council told the Herald that absolute deadline for all the posters to be removed was Friday morning.
But yesterday afternoon, there were hundreds still on open display. "It is now up to the environment section of the council to take action," the spokesperson said.
She added: "Litter wardens are entitled to police the laws in relation to posters."
A Sinn Fein spokesperson told the Herald that the city council has given them an extension until Monday, but the council has denied any knowledge of this.
June 22, 2008
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