ELECTION ROW:A FIANNA FÁIL local election candidate has criticised South Dublin County Council for distributing a magazine featuring photographs and other details of sitting councillors on election day.
Éamonn Walsh, who was running in Tallaght Central, claimed the magazine gave an unfair advantage to candidates who had council seats. Distribution began last week and continued yesterday.
“It’s grossly inappropriate in the days before an election and on the day itself. You wouldn’t get it in a tin-pot dictatorship. It’s outrageous,” Mr Walsh said.
The magazine, South County Dublin Today, is published twice a year, usually in June and December, and is delivered to 80,000 homes in south Dublin.
The latest edition contains councillors’ photographs, along with their names, party affiliation, addresses, landline and mobile phone numbers, e-mail and websites addresses on pages two and three. The last page of the magazine carries the message “Don’t Forget to Vote!”
Mr Walsh said: “This is a disgraceful abuse of council funds in recessionary times. It’s a cosy cartel of sitting councillors seeking reaffirmation of their status.”
He said he believed the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) Commission would be interested in investigating the circumstances behind the publication.
However, a spokeswoman for South Dublin County Council said councillors’ details were included in every edition of the magazine.
She confirmed that the current edition was brought out a little earlier than normal. Distribution by a hired company began in the middle of last week and continued yesterday.
“Each edition contains a message from the mayor and the county manager, and also includes a list of the elected members.”
A Sipo commission spokesman said it had no role in local elections.
