NOW THAT THE 31st Dail is in situ, the general election campaign machine has wound down.

And this year the four councils in Dublin – the most heavily postered area of the country – say that candidates have been on the ball in removing their posters. The election material had to be removed within seven days after the 25 February polling date.

A spokesperson for South Dublin County Council told TheJournal.ie that they had issued 30 warnings within 24 hours of the deadline being passed on the morning of Saturday, 5 March. The spokesperson said:

No fines have been issued and in fairness to the candidates, most have been removed. They have been better about it than in 2007 – this time there seems to be more awareness among candidates to show responsibility and the public have also been closely monitoring.

Fingal County Council said it was “very satisfied with the effort made to remove all posters” and that as of the end of last week, it had not issued any fines relating to election posters left in situ after the deadline for removing them.

However, it did say that the issue of cable ties was not such a clear-cut matter. If ties were left behind on the poles, it was difficult to ascertain who had left them behind. A council spokesperson said:

Currently, the staff of Fingal County Council are removing cable ties which were used to secure the election posters.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council said that 25 fines had been issued to candidates who had left their posters in place beyond the deadline.

Dublin City Council said that compliance had been “good” from the parties and that most of the 200 fines it had issued were for posters being put up too early, before the election was officially called by then Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

TheJournal.ie spotted this poster belonging to Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore still swinging from a lamppost on Merrion Square, in front of Leinster House, on the first day of the Dail last week, on 9 March. However, it had been removed by the following morning:

[caption id="attachment_104837" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="A poster for Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore left on a lamppost on Merrion Square on March 9, several days after the poster removal deadline had passed"][/caption]