The Department of the Environment has asked local authorities to come up with initiatives to tackle the litter problem of plastic ties used for election posters in advance of the forthcoming local and European elections. Liam Reid reports.
The ties were identified during the 2002 general election by some local authorities as a serious litter problem after it emerged that a number of candidates had failed to remove them along with their election posters.
Under legislation introduced seven years ago, candidates are required to remove their posters and ties within seven days of polling day. Failure to do so can result in on-the-spot fines of €125. However, it is almost impossible for litter wardens to trace the ownership of the ties.
Two ties, measuring up to 50 centimetres in length, are used to bind the laminated posters to lamp-posts. They have been in widespread use in political campaigns since the late 1990s along with laminated posters.
The Green Party has targeted the ties as an increasing litter nuisance, tabling questions in the Dáil on the problem. It is also proposing its own solution, namely that each party should use different-coloured ties or have the candidate's name printed on them.
"The ties are a serious nuisance," said Green TD Mr Ciaran Cuffe. "It came up as a problem at the last election. Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council wrote a stiff letter to all candidates to ensure that they were removed. But even now there's still quite a few up."
Mr Cuffe believes that a colour-coding or labelling system would solve the problem, and his party plans to outline its proposals in a letter to each local authority. "It's not rocket science, it could be done quite easily. We are generally opposed to the widespread postering in elections and believe it should be banned. But, being realistic, this would be a good first start."
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said that they had contacted local authorities to ask them to explore with the political parties the possibility of having appropriate arrangements put in place to have the ties removed.