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IN A FEW months election posters will be displayed as far as the eye can see in cities, towns and villages across Ireland.
All candidates have to obey certain rules when it comes to erecting and removing posters.
For example, under law posters should only be erected for a certain specified time period before an election – either 30 days before the poll date or from the date the polling day order for the election has been made, whichever is the shorter period of time.
All posters are supposed to be removed within seven days of polling day.
This doesn’t always happen and is often a bone of contention after elections.
Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone has called for a limit on the number of posters allowed per candidate: 400.
At present, there is no cap. A spokesperson for the Department of the Environment said the number of posters erected is “a matter for candidates” that will be impacted by financial restrictions.
Noone said €19,000 was the average cost per candidate for the 2011 General Election campaign, “much of which would have gone on posters”.
She will be contesting the next election for Fine Gael in the Dublin West constituency, alongside Health Minister Leo Varadkar.
Noone said a poster limit “would level the playing field and, ultimately, be in line with what people are always calling for”.
In the next election, with new parties having launched in the last two months and more independent candidates than ever, you are realistically looking at ten different party groupings that will be competing in a number of constituencies.
“This will bring huge competition, pressure to spend and – also – a lot of posters. With a conservative estimate of 1,000 posters per candidate, you could be looking at 10,000 posters per constituency, without including multiple candidates from the same party.
Not everyone agrees
Fianna Fáil is not on board with the idea, with a party spokesperson telling TheJournal.ie it’s “too late” for new rules to be brought in as many candidates have already printed their posters.
“Fianna Fáil will be complying fully with the current regulations on election posters,” the spokesperson said.
A representative for Sinn Féin noted that it supports cross-party agreement in some constituencies that certain areas, such as accident black spots and town centres, should be designated poster-free.
“The party is also in favour of seeing fewer election posters used during elections due to the high cost, which may bar entry to smaller campaigns, and the environmental impact involved.
However, due to the size of some constituencies relative to one another, an arbitrary limit may not be the answer to the problem. 400 posters in an area such as Dublin Central would have a far greater concentration than the same amount in the new Donegal electoral area for example.
The party spokesperson added that Sinn Féin hopes election posters will “gradually be replaced as the main platform for raising awareness” by social media and other outlets.
Renua Ireland leader Lucinda Creigton told us: “Arguably it would be better for big parties if there was a cap because we have new candidates who never stood for election before who need to get their name and their face out there.
I do think there is an issue with littering across constituencies and I think that it is reasonable that some form of cap be put in place, but that would have to be negotiated, I believe, between all of the parties.
“I think if the government is going to bring forward proposals in that regard they will need to consult with all political parties, not just the ones that they tend to pick and choose from the opposition.”
Labour did not respond to a request for comment about the issue.
What do you think?
Should there be a cap of 400 posters per candidate?
Additional reporting Cliodhna Russell
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I can agree with the article but I don’t think having them sent to a lab for testing as per Wales, is going to make much difference. You go to your dealer on a Friday or Saturday, get the drugs, and consume them an hour or two later. That’s how it works for the vast majority of drug takers recreational or otherwise. Waiting to have then tested, while it may have some merit for the more cautious among us who may use such a service, will do nothing to counteract what happened in Cork. Drug taking tends to be quite spontaneous too.
15 years ago the Green party in the UK were selling home XTC testing kits for £20. I bought one myself at that time as I was taking XTC every weekend. Also at that time it was widely reported that certain nightclubs in Holland were using UV lights in their clubs for XTC users to test the purity there and then before consuming. It looked something like an ATM machine and you’d walk up and put the drug under the light. That’s progressive in itself.
When you have clowns like Micheal MArtin and Brian Cowen claiming they didn’t inhale you know where you stand on this issue. Inhaling or taking drugs is not illegal, having them in your possession is. The media seemed to have missed that bit at the time.
Even Gay Byrne at this point has called for the legalisation of drugs. Ming, while well-meaning, became a little off-putting to the older generation on this topic in my opinion. A little too dictatorial and he turned quite a lot of people off. The wrong people. The people in their 50′s, 60′s and beyond. They are the people that need to be convinced through reasoned argument and gently too.
I think this might be more for dealers than users. To make sure their stuff is okay. No dealer regardless of what the media says would want someone dying because of using their drugs nor the police attention it draws
You can still buy those test kits over the internet for about €30 euro and they can differentiate between most drugs! Not enough people know about them, and the hse issuing statements like “there is no way to know what is in your drugs” is just promoting unsafe use.
Richard if the drugs passed through one set of hands you’d have a point, but by the time they get to the consumer they’ve had a number of people add to the weight. And most of those dealing in chemicals have no morals whatsoever
Powders maybe. But you can’t add to pills. EVEn so if a dealer has let’s say 20 plus pills I reckon the vast majority would still cover their back and get one tested. Doesn’t guarantee they are all safe. It is all about harm reduction not elimination (which is impossible while unregulated)
What exactly do you think pills are before they become pills?
Certain drugs are bought in pill form, others in powder. They are usually turned into pills by the manufacturers in Asia or wherever. It is not in their interest to contaminate the product or add adulterants. 10% extra weight to them means very little when their wholesale price is a tiny fraction of what it sells for here in the west. They want repeat business. It is when drugs come to the west that weight gets added my adding other substances. When the price is 10 times more here than what was paid for it, that is when it is extremely profitable to add the weight. Big time dealers would test for the purity to make sure they are getting good stuff and then cut it up. Doesn’t really happen at the lower level.
@Richard.
If a bag of heroin results in an overdose then the dealer who supplied it is suddenly inundated with demand for that batch as users recognise t’s a strong dose.
It’s not uncommon for dealers to put a lethal dose in the mix somewhere to boost sales.
The decision as to who gets the lethal dose is left to the street dealers.
Blanket prohibition with no chance of debate ain’t cutting it either. It’ll never be out of people’s reach if they want it
Just like the Cigarette campaign did.
It’s time to get very graphic with the drugs kill campaign.
However the Libtards would probably start covering the kid’s eyes.
Education and easily available drug testing kits is the only way. People are going to take drugs no matter what, they should at least know what they are getting into.
Those kits can’t detect all the ingredients so no good really.
I think some information is always better than no information, as long as the tester is aware of the limitations of a reagent test. For example, a lot of what is sold as MDMA contains no MDMA, and simple reagent tests can prove that. Having tests more prevalent and consumers more educated would make a big difference to what dealers can get away with selling.
Readily available reagent tests to have at home and available in places where people are likely to take drugs. This in conjunction with walk in centres that perform more rigorous testing during office hours and publish the results online would be a great step forward.
Of course, all of this is just to avoid doing the obvious, which would be regulating the production and supply of drugs, the same as we do with every other industry producing things that people put in their bodies.
Tragic??? Give the hysterical nonsense a rest already!
Bring this issue up when politicians are knocking on doors so they know that it is important
All our politicians should be encouraged to try a dose of LSD in a controlled environment.
Judging by the bull s hite they come out with I reckon most of them are trippin’ already. I remember a few years ago there was a lot of talk about a “rainbow” government… Far out maaan.
How about tied to a chair and fed a truth serum instead, prior to a live pre- election debate
Stuff like this won’t happen if it was legal and regulated.
All that 25i nBome stuff are just horrible research chemicals that you can easily buy off online vendors
Once the Govt makes them illegal all they have to do is change one or two molecules and boom it’s legal again, and the humans who consume them are essentially the guinea pigs.
Same with that poor girl taking PMA instead of MDMA at the Twisted Pepper awhile ago.
This is just going to keep on happening again and again until the people in power use some common sense and legalise them, while also providing education on how to take them responsibly.
Humans should be allowed to explore their consciousness, just like our ancestors before us did.
The problem with 25-i-nbome is it’s very active at 100 micrograms, much like LSD. The difference is 200 micrograms of LSD might frighten you, but 200 micrograms of 25-i-nbome could land you in deep doody. It could even conceivably happen that some clown orders the stuff online in bulk, which would only be a gram. Some people dont know or understand this and the concept of dosage curve. People re-dose repeatedly with the common street drugs, and there’s usually not a problem. Some of the more obscure substances have a dangerously steep dose curve, unlike street drugs. These substances are dangerous in the hands of those who dont, or wont research them properly. At the same time, handled properly, & there’s likely not to be a problem. This is the case most of the time thankfully.
It’s worth noting that id certain well known substances were not outlawed, but regulated, these obscure chems would be very very rare.
If I was to offer advice on it … I’d tell people not to use synthetic versions of drugs. At least you know the risk associated with traditional drugs. Synthetics are the new heroin…. they will cause massive social damage in the next 10 years. Maybe Philip K Dick’s vision of the future isn’t far off the mark.. a society hooked on VR & synthetic drugs. We lose our perception of reality.
Well don’t be knockin VR, it’s pretty darn cool.
People taking research chems and eating eachother is another matter entirely
Dumbest statement I have ever heard.
Drugs have been around as long as we have. People do stupid shit regardless.
Do you really think virtual reality technology would be less of a danger to humans than a
psychotropic drug..?
mandatory 20 years for dealing.
Still drugs coming into places like Indonesia where the death penalty applies.
Draconian laws are only taking more steps backwards, and so long as we’re saying weed is more harmful than alcohol we have a moral duty to oppose the status quo
Two death penalties then.
The more severe the penalties for drug smuggling the greater the rewards if your successful and for drug mules who are normally doing it because they’re desperate for cash the greater the draw. Thailand has some of the harshest laws on the planet is awash with drugs. Magic mushrooms and weed are common pizza toppings for crying out loud and yabba can be bought on most street corners for pennies.China white is pretty much everywhere and regularly sold to idiot tourists as cocaine leading to Pulp Fiction scenarios.Then you have the likes of Saudi Arabia who make a big hoohaa about executing smugglers but where only recently one of it’s princes was caught with two tonnes of speed.. Enough to get every man, woman and child in the Middle East of their faces for the next 30 years. The myth that harsher penalties for smuggling or possession discourage drug use is hogwash.
oh dear. here comes the authoritarian clowns.
A “say no to drugs” message hasn’t worked but surely the USI were irresponsible by not asking young people to avoid this stuff. The HSE came out and said it. This needs to be tackled from a health perspective NOT a legal criminal one. People take the stuff regardless of legality and regulation. We need to have a similar campaign like the tobacco one – disincentivise the stuff and highlight all the dangers that are there.
People are playing Russian roulette with substances they at least should be aware of the bullets in the gun.
They really aren’t playing Russian roulette because if they were the deaths and incidents would be much higher. There are risks but exaggerated them undermines anything else said.
Time for an open grown up discussion.
Never forget the first substance most people abuse is alcohol.
If they think their lives are so miserable and worthless that they feel the need to take drugs and get high, let them, who cares!! They are probably at it every weekend! Any drug user or junkie knows the consequences of taking drugs and a possibility of an overdose. They are clearly okay with it, leave them to it if they want to kill themselves. The problem is that they are so out of it that they can hurt or kill/attack other people. Why even publish this crap about these junkies?!
NEWSFLASH RONAN: In Ireland, just over 27% reported using any illegal drugs in their lifetime. Cannabis was the most commonly used illegal drug with 25% of the adult population having ever used the drug. After cannabis, lifetime use was highest for ecstasy, cocaine and magic mushrooms (each 7%) – This story impacts more than a few people…. try 1 million
Your definitive statements remind me of primary school lessons when our teacher explained that words like ‘any’ or ‘none’ are inapplicable to society at large. Did you skip primary school Ronan? Any drug user, they are clearly okay, they are so out of it….you are generalizing and it shows your ignorance.
If they think their lives are so miserable and worthless that they feel the need to take drugs and get high, let them, who cares!! They are probably at it every weekend! Any drug user or junkie knows the consequences of taking drugs and a possibility of an overdose. They are clearly okay with it, leave them to it if they want to kill themselves. The problem is that they are so out of it that they can hurt or kill/attack other people. Why even publish this crap about drug users, is it news?!
A house party on Monday night? Respect!!! In my day the trippin’ was kept for the weekend… “Avoid the brown acid maaaan”…
The government has hiked up the price of smoking so it’s not an option, the price of alcohol is ridiculous and leo has proposed another hike with min price on wine to €9 and all others €1 a unit. Weed now legal in some states in US, will never be legal here so what’s a student to do? It’s foolish to think people won’t want to to have a social life and enjoy themselves and with the current gov I can understand why this is what they turn to. The gov has so much blood on their hands now, between this, the unsafe hospitals, and the increase in suicide to to financial sanctions imposed.
Is a criminal case opened in relation to this….it should be. Kids putting this stuff in their mouth’s…dancing in the nude covered in blood, chewing the edge of a pavement, in a different world…mad stuff.
How about the hse take into account that normal drug test dont test for these designer drugs. So addicts keep on using away and getting away with violence and drug driving and doin untold damage to others. Ignoring the problem doesn’t help the victims of these drugs.
People who take trips, Es and party pill type stuff aren’t addicts or violent.
That’s a whole different thing.
Alcohol & prescription meds cause way more violence and crime than party drugs. Massively.
love the thumbs down for what is clearly for someone, an uncomfortable truth.
People like to get high, and most never have a problem. Thats never gonna change, and there’ll never be an honest debate until certain people accept it.. Put that in your puritan pipe and smoke it!
If u are stupid enough to do drugs this day in age then shame on u we all know the repocussions
While we’re waiting forever for the government to grow the balls to do something, if you’re a person who uses recreational drugs you can seriously diminish your chances of something going wrong by buying these testing kits online:
https://dancesafe.org/product/complete-set-of-all-7-testing-kits/
Costs about €90, which I know is steep but they last about a year. Think about the price you’d pay if something goes wrong, and make the smart choice. The full kit can test for pretty much every drug available. Worth noting though that although the test will tell ya what the ‘majority’ substance is in your drug, it won’t tell ya if it’s purely that substance alone. In other words, you’ll pretty much eliminate your chances of dying from a dodgy batch, but that shouldn’t be taken as an excuse to overindulge, cos there could be traces of god knows what in there.
have your say