Fines to be issued as by-election candidate's image appears on path outside polling stations
Dublin City Council are set to issue fines after a Dublin Central by-election candidate's image was marked on the path outside polling stations around the city.
The image, seen by Dublin Live, was deployed in several locations around the city. The action is is in breach of both litter legislation and electoral legislation, which restricts candidate materials from being displayed from a polling station.
The technique uses stencils and a power washer to make words and images appear more prominently than the rest of the pavement. “ Dublin City Council has received a number of complaints relating to images being stencilled onto public roadways and footpaths within the Central Area of the city today,” a spokesperson for the Council said.
“The Council will now be issuing fines to anyone found to have breached the Litter Pollution Acts. Cleaning crews have been dispatched as quickly as possible to remove the images, subject to resource availability.”
Voters are going to the polls today to fill the vacant Dáil seat in Dublin Central. Polling stations have opened across Dublin Central this morning, and stations will remain open until 10pm tonight.
A total of 57,619 people are registered to vote in Dublin Central and there are 14 candidates on the ballot. Voters are advised to check their polling card in advance to confirm the location of their polling station.
There are currently two vacant Dáil seats, with by-elections for one seat each in the Dublin Central and Galway West constituencies. In Dublin, the seat became vacant due to the resignation of Paschal Donohue on 18 November 2025, who was a TD for that constituency.
The overall turnout in the area for the General Election in November 2024 was 52%. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said it was “very hard to call it” when asked on Thursday about the by-elections, and said Dublin Central had “historically been a more difficult constituency for us”.
The candidates in Dublin Central include Sinn Fein ’s Janice Boylan, who is hoping to secure a second seat in the constituency alongside party leader Mary Lou McDonald; Social Democrats candidate Daniel Ennis; Green Party’s Janet Horner; Dublin Lord Mayor and Fine Gael’s Ray McAdam; People Before Profit’s Eoghan O Ceannabhain; Fianna Fail’s John Stephens; Aontu’s Ian Noel Smyth and Labour’s Ruth O’Dea. The campaign of Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, who has been described in court by a judge as the patriarchal figurehead of the Hutch criminal organisation, has also been closely watched in the constituency.
Independents Tony Corrigan, Colm Joseph Flood, Mannix Flynn, Malachy Steenson, and John O’Leary are also running. The other TDs in the four-seater constituency are Labour’s Marie Sherlock and Social Democrat Garry Gannon.
This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme