COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, June 13, 2011

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor G. Kenny

To ask the Manager how much fees and monies have been spent on legal material in regards to the injunction against named persons in relation to sit protest in SDCC main foyer?

REPLY:

The group in support of the campaign to return horses to individuals - who could not prove the required licencing, accommodation or means to adequately care for the animals -  was a regrettable outcome of this Local Authority pursuing the interests of the community through the implementation of the Council’s Control of Horses Bye Laws. The event caused significant disruption to the legitimate business of Customers seeking to avail of services and the Staff trying to serve their needs under an intimidating and hindering presence in the foyer.

While it is rare that such a number of arrests arise and rarer still that the Council is forced to resort to the courts for such protests, it is a simple fact of the business of Local Government that such events do arise from time to time and Staff of the Council are experienced at dealing with them.

Regrettably, these events always have a cost in financial and other ways. The cost of the non-financial impact on Customers, Staff and other services cannot be quantified however the financial impacts are set out hereunder –

1.                    Costs relating to the Round Up of the Horses - €2,235

2.                    Costs relating to the diversion of staff resources to deal with the protest - € 4,832

3.                    Costs relating to the Court proceedings - € 3,414

4.                    Costs of the Garda time is not available as yet but is understood to be in excess of 100 man hours

5.                    The cost of Courts time spent on the matter is not available.

6.                    The potential impact on other services where savings need to be identified should funding not be available will become clear once the funding position has been clarified with the Dept of Agriculture.

An event such as this inevitably places a huge burden on the time of staff that deal with the particular issue at hand, media relations arising, customer care, preparation of legal proceedings, attendance at court etc. Given the number and varied involvement of staff, the amount of management and staff time spent on the matter, the cost to the Council of this time being taken up and the loss to other services arising from staff being diverted from other duties is a significant but largely unquantifiable cost.

The total  cost for the Council is €10,481 for Council. As these funds were not provided for during the Budget 2011 process the outlay must now be borne through the identification of savings in other service areas.