Donegal County Council has warned that graffiti on signage across the county is causing significant harm to the local tourism industry.
Red paint sprayed on road signs is damaging the county’s brand, Cllr Ciaran Brogan told the council this week.
Spray paint has been used to cover the anglicised name of local areas.
The local authority has been asked what it was doing to remove and prevent the “sabotaging”.
Cllr Brogan said the vandalism is causing “huge reputational damage to our tourism market and our county brand of Donegal despite the huge efforts by so many people to invest in and promote our true potential in the last number of years in both private and public investment”.
Mr. Garry Martin. Director of Economic Development, said there has been an increase in this type of “wanton vandalism” in certain parts of Donegal in recent times.
“As well as being illegal to deface any such signage, it is unsightly and confusing to road users not familiar with the area and dependent on directional signage to travel across the county to various tourism locations,” Mr Martin said.
Mr Martin added that the damage to signs harms a sector that employs upwards of 20,000 people in Donegal.
“As a Council we would ask that this vandalism cease immediately and that anyone with knowledge of those carrying out the defacing of signage report the matter to their local Garda station,” he said.
The Council will make efforts to repair damaged signage, but said this may come at the expense of other valuable services.
