COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF JOINT POLICING COMMITTEE

Friday, April 11, 2008

QUESTION NO.

QUESTION: Councillor J. Lahart

1.To ask the Garda Team concerning Graffiti:

REPLY:

1.   During 2006 and 2007 Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform carried out a pilot programme which funded anti-graffiti action in parts of Dublin City, bray and Galway city. A designated Garda Inspector and liaison Gardai were appointed in each area.  A Graffiti hotline number was set up where Gardai reported pockets of high visibility Graffiti and elicit a quicker response.  The project was later expanded to the entire catchment area of Dublin city Council.   Gardai in all Council areas have been pro-active in identifying Graffiti hotspots and collecting the material therein.  Gardai also report incidents of Graffiti to South Dublin County Council environmental section who remove the Graffiti.  In the DMR South Division in 2007 a total of three (3) individuals have been prosecuted for incidents involving Graffiti, one of those individuals has been before the courts and is awaiting a probation report.  The other two individuals have been summoned and court dates are awaited.  A further sixteen (16) young persons have been identified and are being dealt with under the Juvenile Liaison Scheme.  Two of the arrests were effected in the Terenure area.  I do not have any figures for the Dublin area.  Community Gardai in Tallaght have started an initiative where they are recording incidents of graffiti in an effort to identify perpetrators of same.   In DMR West 6 people were arrested for Graffitti offences since January 2008.

Along with this initiative, members are tailoring an anti-graffiti talk for local primary schools, which will entail a ‘graffiti’ arts competition, resulting in a number of winners.  South Dublin County Council are sponsoring this arts programme.  The winners will have their designs/tags printed on post card type papers, which will have the Garda and SDCC logos on them.  It is hoped to extend this programme to secondary schools at a later date.  It is anticipated that it will create an awareness of the offences being created through graffiti, hence reducing such incidents.  

The Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform are now spearheading a programme under the aegis of POBAL  www.pobal.ie to tackle the ongoing problem of Graffiti.  This is a countrywide initiative with funding coming from -

1. The Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform
2. Department of Community Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs and
3. Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

In total €4 million is being made available to clean up areas affected by graffiti.  To this end local groups or consortia of groups are invited to apply for funding.  This first phase of the funding will be confined to Rapid Areas only.  The second phase will be rolled out in May 2008. – Chief Superintendent John Manley

2.  Response from the Finance Directorate.

Please note the information available to the Finance Directorate is limited to the reports compiled by the Directorate as part of its monitoring programme to ensure that An Post operates the FCPS contract in accordance with the agreed contractual and pricing arrangements. 

The Finance Directorate receives information with regard to the FCPS receipts on a national basis only and as such it is not possible to provide details of the amount of FCPS revenue generated in the Dublin Metropolitan Region 

Year	Net Amount Received
2006	€13,942,309
2007	€21,867,291
Total	€35,809,600

The figures for the “Net Amount Received” above includes adjustments for bank charges, An Post charges, commissions etc. for the period January 2006 – December 2008 in respect of FCPS.  The net amount received in respect of FCPS fines are paid directly to the Exchequer Central Fund.

- Chief Superintendent John Manley