There have been calls for a change of rules as politicians have been accused of using "public meeting" posters to "reserve" spots on poles for upcoming elections.
South Dublin's Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown area has seen a number of candidates advertising public meetings in recent weeks with some feeling they're being used to get around election poster rules.
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Election posters are not permitted until 30 days before polling day - meaning local candidates aren't allowed to erect theirs until this Wednesday.
Recently in Stillorgan, Fine Gael's Maeve O'Connell and Fianna Fail's Donal Smith both had a number of signs up for meetings on separate issues.
Fine Gael's Barry Saul had also been using posters for a local meeting but has since removed them.
All of the posters in Stillorgan showed the politician's face and name prominently while details of the meetings were in smaller text.
The designs have come in for a backlash as many believe candidates are trying to reserve their places on polls.
When asked, most locals said they were unaware of the rule, but they would rather not see posters in the area in general.
One man told Dublin Live: "It's a bit of a loophole, I don't think anyone really knows there's a rule though so it probably won't make any difference.
Another man said: "I don't like the posters, if they break the rules it should be stopped. But someone should go around and pull them all down. There's some tidy town councils around the areas who've asked them not to put them up and I'll be taking notes who ignores them."
One woman said: "I wouldn't have even noticed, so no it wouldn't have made a difference who I voted for. I personally don't like them [posters
"They annoy me, even when they're on time, they're dated and ugly, we're all on the internet. And you'd never make your mind up over a poster."
Dublin Live contacted the three candidates for comment with Fine Gael's Barry Saul responding saying he had used them constantly over the past five years regardless of polling dates, and that they have a significant impact on the turnout.
Saul's most recent poster advertised a meeting in Kilmacud regarding future developments in Stillorgan.
The meeting took place on Saturday March 30 and the advertisements were removed shortly after.
He currently has no posters for upcoming meetings and said the rules are being abused as elections loom.
He said: "All my posters are down,
"I'd say people are definitely abusing the rule. I put posters up ten days before meetings as opposed to 30 full days.
"But some people are getting annoyed at public meeting posters, and the legislation needs to be changed to reduce the time frame that the posters can be up.
"Since being elected I've had 16 public meetings in five years, the first was in 2015 six months after the last local election.
"They've always been on local issues, and a lot more people attend than if there's a letter through their door or a flyer.
"The turnout was usually 50 percent or less when I hadn't used posters.
"The issues covered have always affected places within a hundred yards of the pole."
Saul went on to criticise those who he felt abused the 30-day rule saying some candidates' meetings are about non-local subjects, and that some are trying to "reserve" spots on lampposts for when campaign posters are permitted.
He said: "Many are holding these meetings about things like the internet, or world peace, or other issues that aren't local. There's a credibility issue.
"If five people turned up to it it doesn't matter because the aim was to get their face out there.
"The problem is with the last six weeks there's been a huge amount of public meetings, people are annoyed about it.
"Some may be doing them now just to reserve their spots on a lamppost so they can put up their local election posters there next week.
"That's an abuse of the process and needs to be addressed."
When asked about the design of his, the councillor said he'd be willing to look at changing it in future.
"It's a template I had five years ago. You'll notice it's an older design to other Fine Gael candidates.
"It's more laziness than anything premeditated, so I just had a designer take the last poster and use it for meetings.
"But I have no problem if I'm elected using a different design that reflects priority to the meeting details. But I do hope people judge it on the record, I haven't got any up at the moment and the posters I have used for meetings have been taken down straight after the events and they've been held regularly regardless of any elections coming up."
