Using election posters is "bordering on vandalism" to communities across the country, a regional journalist has said.

On Lunchtime Live today, the Western People’s Simon Burke said posters are unnecessary in an increasingly digital world.

They were erected in towns, villages and cities across the country overnight, signalling the 30-day countdown to local and European elections has begun.

Mr Burke thinks they have no place in modern politics.

“Their time is up,” he said.

“They are an outdated method of electioneering, they’re an eyesore and bordering on vandalism at this stage.

“Especially with social media, politicians don’t really need them anymore, they have their own Facebook and Twitter to get the message across that way.”

Election posters in Dublin, 2021, during a by election for Dublin Bay South. Image: NurPhoto SRL / Alamy Stock Photo

The Mayo-based journalist said town centres are “prime real estate” for candidates to place their posters.

“Once you get them up there with the most foot traffic and road traffic, that’s the main thing,” he said.

“There’s often nefarious tactics where someone might want to be on a pole and put their poster on top of someone else’s, or even remove it.

“It’s all cloak and dagger with these guys.”

'Horrendous' election posters

John in Galway said election posters are a “horrendous” eye sore and bad for the planet.

“We’re supposed to be in a climate emergency but the way politicians carry on you wouldn’t know it,” he said.

“These things are made from fossil fuels; plastics are made from fossil fuels.

“These things take 400 years to biodegrade so you can say they are recyclable but after 400 years I would say the campaign will be well and truly over by then.”

Cost

John said they are also costly.

“I saw a company saying we’ll make your election poster for 40 quid a piece,” he said.

“I must have passed about 200 of them today, at 40 quid a time? Give me a break.

“You could house an awful lot of asylum seekers on 40,000, which is what 1,000 of these posters would cost.”

'Electoral process'

Cork City Labour Cllr John Maher said posters are a key component of the “electoral process”.

“If people have an issue with them, I don’t think having the discussion 30 days before the election is the right time to be doing it,” he said.

“The horse has bolted; the game is already on and anyone using posters as we currently speak is doing nothing wrong.

“We have a Government that is addressing, supposedly, the climate emergency and they don’t see it as an item on the agenda.”

Cllr Maher was a first-time candidate last time out and credited posters as helping him get elected.

Local and European elections will be taking place on June 7th and from then candidates are given seven days to take their posters down.

Main image: Election posters outside Government Buildings in 2020. Image: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo