A Fianna Fáil TD has removed hundreds of posters from lampposts and telegraph poles in the south Dublin area, following a warning that he could be prosecuted for littering.
The removal took place amid confusion over the legal status of thousands of political posters that have been put up on lampposts and telegraph poles since the start of the new year.
Fianna Fáil Dublin South West TD Charlie O'Connor was asked yesterday by the waste enforcement section of South Dublin County Council to remove 400 posters from streets in Tallaght and Templeogue.
However, Mr O'Connor has in turn accused the council of inconsistency and "persecution", claiming it failed to enforce the removal of Labour and Fine Gael posters over the past month.
South Dublin County Council said it was adopting a "zero-tolerance" policy in relation to pre-election posters.
Michael Coleman, a senior official in the environment section of the council, said the council had written to Mr O'Connor informing him that his posters contravened the Litter Pollution Act 1997, and asking him to remove them.
"Other similar posters will not tolerated. Persons or organisations who contravene the Act are leaving themselves open to having legal proceedings taken against them if they do not remove the posters," he said.
Mr O'Connor is the latest politician to have been contacted by the council. Fine Gael has also been contacted in recent weeks about its posters.
Mr O'Connor's posters, with the slogans, "O'Connor and Tallaght go together", and "O'Connor, he's the 1", appeared on lampposts at the end of last week.
Mr O'Connor said Fine Gael and Labour posters had been taken down recently, having been on display in Tallaght for the past month. "Then I put up a few posters and suddenly they're down on me straight away."
Many candidates have been involved in similar poster campaigns in recent months, in what is being seen as a bid to bypass electoral spending legislation. Spending on advertising or posters is not counted under the spending limits until the election is called.
Under litter legislation, candidates are free to erect posters in public places once an election is called and they have 10 days to remove them after polling.
There is no explicit provision stating that there is a ban on pre-election posters, and yesterday the Department of the Environment declined to give an opinion on such activity, saying it was a matter for each local authority.
However, many councils consider erecting candidate posters in public places to be littering if it is outside election periods.
The litter laws do not affect the use of advertising hoardings, many of which have been used for national and local political campaigns.
Candidates have also been attempting to find loopholes in the litter laws by claiming that the posters are advertising public meetings, which are normally allowed by councils.