RTÉ HAS had to reshoot a scene in tomorrow night’s omnibus edition of its popular soap Fair City after it emerged that an election poster of a Labour Party local election candidate was visible in an episode shown on Thursday night.
In the scene shot in the kitchen of characters, Paul and Niamh, the poster of candidate Claire O’Regan, who is running for Dublin City Council in the north inner city, is clearly visible.
Election posters have previously appeared on the soap but normally as a collective, representing candidates of all parties, to add local context for the inner city-based series.
Responding to questions last night, RTÉ accepted that the poster had appeared.
“It was one of a number of different items on a noticeboard in the kitchen. It was an element of set-dressing,” said a spokeswoman.
She denied that there had been any impropriety, or breach of broadcasting legislation.
“It was inadvertent. It was human error,” she said, adding that neither the candidate nor the Labour Party had requested the poster be displayed.
“It wasn’t a product of any political solicitation,” she stressed, adding that the scene involving the characters was reshot for broadcast tomorrow.
Fair City, fictionally based in Carrigstown, a Dublin north inner-city suburb, used posters of all general election candidates in 2007.
Ms O’Regan could not be contacted last night, but a Labour Party spokesman said: “We assume that it makes the programme look current from their point of view. Other than that, we cannot shed any light on the story.”
Ms O’Regan, who is originally from Limerick but now lives in East Wall, is a first-time local election hopeful, and serves on the board of the Community Action Network and as a volunteer with the Free Legal Advice Centre.
