Signs point to deal on posts

STEPS were taken yesterday towards a compromise over National Roads Authority (NRA) plans to remove iconic signs in tourist areas.

One of the signsposts, in the Burren village of Ballyvaughan, had been used by Tourism Ireland in advertising the country globally. The Ballyvaughan Tearooms signs had been in place for 29 years.

The issue was raised in the Senate yesterday by Martin Conway (FG).

The removal of the signs by the NRA was part of a €60 million programme for the national road network, which began last year and set is to conclude in 2012.

An audit of signs by the NRA has identified hundreds of “tourist signs” erected on local authority signposts without formal approval.

The NRA’s openness to erection of separate signposts was in response to a proposal made yesterday by the vice-president of the Irish Hotels’ Federation, Michael Vaughan.

He said: “I have asked our chief executive to write to the NRA. The signs could be designed and engineered in such a way as to look good, create colour and imagination, but in a very structured way side by side with the existing road signs.”

He welcomed NRA signposting in general along motorways that allowed tourists to find tourist destinations easier”. However, he hit out at what he called the ‘blitzkrieg’ undertaken by the NRA in removing hundreds of tourist signs.

He said: “It is not only in Ballyvaughan, but an iconic sign in Lahinch as well was removed. It was carried out in a very cavalier way and the NRA has denuded the landscape of these traditional, quirky signs in one fell swoop.

Mr Vaughan said that the removal of the signs at the Ballyvaughan sign-post “is very lamentable”. He said: “It is a real negative for small tourist enterprises where their marketing expenses are finite and a sign post is so important.”

NRA spokesman Sean O’Neill said yesterday: “The erection of advertising signage is tightly regulated for road safety and environmental reasons.”