Renewed call for election poster bans as Cork city and county is littered with leftover cable ties

The election is done and dusted and plastic ties left behind from campaign posters bring up the topic of whether posters should be banned permanently.

Parts of Cork opted for a poster ban ahead of the election, with the concern over litter and single-use plastic being the main reasons.

Now that votes have been cast and seats declared, posters have started to come down across Cork. However plastic ties left behind is a common occurrent on lampposts across the city and county. 

This has caused people to voice concerns over the litter they create and the impact it leaves on the environment.

Ballincollig, Passage West, Douglas Street, Youghal and many more towns issued voluntary poster bans asking candidates not to poster their areas.

Carrigaline also had a ban in place. The head of the Carrigaline Tidy Towns committee Liam O'Connor was elected to Cork County Council for Fine Gael.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr O’Connor said that come next election, he will be seeking to have a nationwide ban on election posters.

“I’ll be calling for a complete ban on posters in the next election that happens in the country.” He told The Echo.

Mr O’Connor feels that Ireland should follow other European cities and have just one designated area for posters in each town or city.

“I think a lot of European cities have one area of a town or city where one poster per candidate goes up and everybody can go to that area and see who is running and that should be sufficient.” 

When asked if he thought people would be happy with posters being banned, Mr O’Connor said that most would agree with it.

“I’m sure most people would agree with that ban, you can see with the green wave that most communities see them [posters] as an eyesore and I have no doubt that with one place designated for posters, everybody would be happy with that.”