The Irish Times

Archiseek, Ireland's architectural discussion website, has added its voice to calls on Dublin City Council to halt the erection of free-standing advertising panels on footpaths in the city pending a review and investigation. Under a deal agreed by city council management without the prior knowledge of councillors, French-owned advertising company JC Decaux was permitted to erect 120 of these panels in return for a bicycle rental scheme on the Paris Vélib model. Opponents of what Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe termed a "dodgy deal" include the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, An Taisce and the Dublin City Business Association - mainly because of the obstruction of footpaths by the metal-framed panels. The arrangement required JC Decaux to supply four rental bikes per on-street panel, amounting to a total of 480, compared to 12 per panel under the Vélib scheme in Paris, where the city council also receives an annual rental of more than €2,000 per unit. The deal first became public in December 2006 after a contributor to the Archiseek website initiated a discussion under the heading "And you thought Dublin's Streets were cluttered already". Not even then Lord Mayor Vincent Jackson (Ind) was aware of it.