Tidy Towns competition adjudicators will not penalise towns and villages where election posters are displayed so long as they remove them and cable ties within the time frame set out in legislation, the Dáil has heard.
Following a drive by campaigners in recent days to erect posters in advance of next month’s local and European elections, Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys warned those doing so to remove cable ties as well as posters after the vote because “the ties are a torture for the Tidy Towns, I can tell you”.
She said that if posters are up “within the allowed time frame”, set out in the 1997 Litter Act, “my department has advised the panel of adjudicators that it should not impact on any Tidy Towns scoring”.
Posters for the June 7th elections went up on Tuesday, the first day legally allowed, and must be removed, along with cable ties, within a fortnight after election day.
Ms Humphreys was replying to Cork East Labour TD Seán Sherlock who asked if it was within the Minister’s remit “to ask the national judging committee of the Tidy Towns to allow for judging to take place a little bit later than normal given the existence of posters”.
She said that before the competition opens each year officials from her department meet competition sponsor SuperValu and the “highly skilled and competent panel of adjudicators”. The department’s role is to facilitate the administration of this adjudication process only but it is “not active in the formal adjudication of competition entries”.
But she said that “in the event the adjudication period coincides with an election, adjudicators are aware that election posters may be displayed in towns and villages entered in the SuperValu tidy towns competition”.
This year’s competition was launched on March 23rd and yesterday was the closing date for applicants. “Adjudication typically takes place in June and July over a very intensive six week period,” she said, adding that some 900 towns and villages were likely to participate.
Mr Sherlock, who is based in Mallow, said “this will give comfort to Tidy Towns committees particularly where there are voluntary codes or arrangements where poster bans exist in certain towns like my own”.
The Minister said there has been a debate about posters for as long as she has been in politics.
“Personally I wouldn’t lose any sleep if a poster was never put up. But at the same time I recognise that if you’re a first time candidate and you want to get your face out there I can see why they’re needed and it is part of our democratic process and I’m not going to wade into any debate on that one.”
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