Crowley faces fine over poster

MUNSTER MEP Brian Crowley could face a fine under the Litter Act for failing to remove a poster which was still hanging on a pole this week after the June 11 elections.

A spokesman for Cork City Council said that it would be investigating the case of the poster, which was on a pole on the Lower Glanmire Road.

Cork City Council’s head of corporate affairs, John D Flynn, said that failure to remove the sign could lead to an on-the-spot fine of €125.

“It’s the first time we’ve had a complaint. Given the number of posters put up for the elections, compliance has been very good. I’m inclined to regard this as an oversight,” Mr Flynn said.

On being notified of the poster, which was still up last week, a spokesman for Brian Crowley said it would be immediately taken down and apologised for the incident.

“We put up a few thousand of them all over the South constituency and we thought they had all been removed,” the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, mystery surrounds how a poster of Jackie Healy-Rae - dating back to the 2002 General Election - has just popped up on a telegraph pole halfway between Bandon and Clonakilty, more than 50 miles outside his Kerry South constituency.

Some people have joked that the colourful Kilgarvan man may be preparing to give Brian Crowley a run for his money in the next European elections.

“At the last general election, posters of mine disappeared from my area and ended up all over the world,” Mr Healy-Rae said yesterday.

“I know of one in a bar in Chicago, and I’ve heard there’s another up a pole in Charleville.

“I’m surely not to blame for them, but they seem to be coming out of the woodwork again.”