COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

QUESTION NO. 12

QUESTION: Councillor J. Lahart

"To ask the Manager for a detailed breakdown of costs of bonfire clean-up and reinstatement for 2009 and 2008?"

REPLY:

In 2008, a total of 760 illegal bonfire sites were recorded across the South Dublin administrative area.  The total cost of the cleanup operation was €195,000.  Of this, approximately €139,000 was spent on the disposal of waste and debris collected by the Council from the bonfire sites.  The direct labour cost was €30,000 and the cost of machinery involved in lifting and transporting the debris was €26,000. 

The total area of open space damaged as a result of bonfires was in excess of 27,000 square metres.  The estimated cost of reinstating the 27,000 square metres of damaged open space was €418,000. However, as the ground conditions post Halloween 2008 were generally unsuitable for re-instatement works, very little re-instatement was actually carried out.

Approximately 28% of the total costs involved for 2008 related to bonfires in the Terenure / Rathfarnham / Templeogue / Knocklyon / Ballyboden and Whitechurch areas.

In the run up to the 2009 Halloween period a concerted effort was made by a number of Council Departments requesting local communities, community and youth groups, schools and the general public to attend the official bonfires in the Tallaght and Clondalkin areas rather than construct their own.  This request, in the main, was ignored in many areas and c. 16,000 square metres of open space was damaged as a result of the fires that took place. In addition to the above, Council crews removed considerable volumes of bonfire material in the weeks leading up to Halloween in an effort to reduce the amount of  material available to burn and limit the damage to the public spaces. 

In the aftermath of Halloween 2009, each unofficial bonfire was logged, photographed and an estimate of the debris remaining calculated to facilitate a programmed removal of the material.  A total of 412 bonfire sites have been recorded across the County.  The clean up programme to remove the offending debris was commenced in early December.  Progress with the clean-up operation was however severly hampered by the very poor ground conditions arising from the unprecedented volume of rainfall during November and December.  As a result, it was not possible to complete bonfire cleanups in many locations until the latter part of December without causing significant further damage to the public open spaces.  Parks Department staff have resumed the process of cleaning up remaining bonfires, where possible, from parks and open space areas across the County.  Complete information relating to the overall cost of the clean up operation for 2009 is still being compiled as the cleanup progresses. Final figures for the cost of the cleanup in 2009 should be available by the end of January. The details will be forwarded when available to the Members.