COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF CLONDALKIN AREA COMMITTEE

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

QUESTION NO. 2

QUESTION: Councillor B. Bonner

To ask the Manager what can be done to address the problem caused by alarms going off incessantly particularly at night time.  This problem has been reported all across the Clondalkin Electoral area. 

REPLY:

The Clondalkin Environmental Health Officers have received 4 complaints to date in 2011 regarding nuisance noise from Intruder Alarms. This has doubled from only 2 in 2010. Overall South Dublin County Council received 15 complaints in 2010 and 7 to date in 2011 that were specifically about the nuisance caused by noise from Intruder alarms.

Section 108 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992 provides for any person to bring the matter swiftly and inexpensively to District Court. The EHOs provide advice to complainants in relation to noise complaints and routinely write to the alleged offender to draw their attention to the facts -

a)      That a complaint had been lodged and they need to consider whether they are inadvertently causing a problem to their neighbours and

b)      That there are laws governing nuisance noise and there may be consequences if they are causing nuisance noise.

In the case of nuisance noise from Intruder Alarms, there is a guidance sheet that the EHOs send out to both the complainant and the alleged offender. (Copy attached) The complainant is advised to keep a log to establish whether there is a pattern to the nuisance noise. The log can be useful in court in establishing the presence of a nuisance. Occasionally this leads to the complainant realising that the alarm does not sound as often as they had thought or that what they thought was a single house is actually a number of different alarms. In general the letter results in the EHO being contacted by the alleged offender and the matter is resolved. There is no immediate response available to the Local Authority to disarm the alarm which is what is normally requested by people making a complaint.

A Noise Nuisance Bill was prepared by the last Government and if this legislation is proceeded, it seems clear that far greater powers will be available to both the Gardai and the Local Authorities, including power of entry by authorised officers and Gardai to disable noise sources and higher fixed penalties for breaches. It is not known at this time whether this legislation is to be proceeded with.

Contact Officers         Tom Prendergast,  Principal Environmental Health Officer and

                                    Cathy Gavin, Senior Environmental Health Officer