THE Green Party in Kerry has said it removed two election posters placed within the 50km speed limit in Killarney as soon as Killarney Tidy Towns representatives asked them to do so.
Earlier this evening KillarneyToday.com reported that the party had come under fire for not adhering to a 20-year old agreement not to erect election posters within the urban boundary.
Posters seeking number one votes for Kerry candidate Cleo Murphy had been placed on poles along the Killarney by-pass road and the action had infuriated the local tidy towns committee.
Tidy Towns Committee chairperson, Yvonne Quill, remarked: “That agreement has never been broken before and we’re not giving up now. Personally, I think this is a disgrace and to think that, of all parties, it’s the Greens that are involved”.
Prior to publishing the report, KillarneyToday.com made a number of attempts to contact the Green Party press officer – by telephone, email and text – but no response was forthcoming.
Just before 9.20pm this Friday, however, the party emailed a statement to KillarneyToday.com insisting that erecting the posters was “a genuine error on the part of a new campaign team”.
Greens Kerry election candidate, Cleo Murphy, said she received a call at lunchtime asking her to remove them and they were taken down in the evening.
“The by-pass is not a built-up area and has a 100km speed zone in parts so we mistakenly assumed it was okay to put up posters there,” she said.
Ms Murphy, from Kenmare, said the Kerry Greens didn’t order any posters for this campaign as they are re-using 35 posters from last year’s local election campaign.
“We agree that the use of posters is not ideal but not using them puts smaller parties and new candidates at a disadvantage in seeking name recognition,” she remarked.
She pointed out that Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan introduced legislation in the Seanad last year to create one central point in each town for the display of a single poster for each candidate but it was voted down.
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