COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 10, 2011

QUESTION NO. 10

QUESTION: Councillor J. Lahart

To ask the Manager what percentage of Council work is contracted out under the headings of Roads and Parks?

REPLY:

Parks:

The work of the Parks Department is carried out under two main categories, maintenance and improvement. The Council has a highly trained, experienced and flexible labour force, supported by a modern fleet of machinery, which enables the majority of the maintenance works programmes, such as grass cutting, weed control, tree management and litter control, to be delivered locally. The improvement works programme, which includes works such as landscaping, footpath construction, park entrance improvements and local stone walls, is also delivered, for the most part by local staff. For certain works, where the required machinery and / or expertise is not available, the work is contracted out to specialist companies / suppliers and examples of this would be the supply and installation of playgrounds, supply and installation of railings, the laying of tarmacadam surface on footpaths and the supply of trees and shrubs. The work assigned to contractors will vary depending work programme requirements.

Roads:

The work of the Roads Department comes in the main under two main categories: routine maintenance and specialised maintenance and improvement works. All routine maintenance works are carried out by the Direct Labour Crews together with a proportion of the specialised maintenance works where specific crews have developed a particular expertise such as footpath renewal. All large scale specialised maintenance and improvement works are carried out by contract and these works would include carriageway re-surfacing and road making works, installation of Quality Bus Corridors etc. The percentage of works carried out in each category would vary from year to year depending on the overall allocations made through the various maintenance and improvement grant categories.