COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 10, 2014

QUESTION NO.6

QUESTION: Councillor E. O'Brien

To ask the Chief Executive to detail the number of fines, if any, issued for the placement of illegal signage in the County?

REPLY:

All breaches of S 19 of the Litter Pollution Act 1997, as amended, pertaining to the prohibition of adveretisements / illegal signage etc. are investigated and appropriate enforcement action is taken where possible.

The Council's Litter Warden Team patrols the County on a daily basis.

It is well known that nationally, there is a problem pertaining to the widespread erection of illegal signage / advertising eg "Cash for Cars”. It is believed that there are networks of offenders involved in this activity.

Where fixed penalty notices have been issued based on vehicle registrations, the notices sent to the addresses of the alleged polluter (which have been outside South Dublin County) by registered post have been returned as undelivered. Consequently, enforcement action, pursuant to the Litter Pollution Act 1997, as amended, has proven to be impossible.

To date in 2014, 167 fixed penalty notices have been issued across the County in relation to illegal signage, which equates to 37% of the total number of fixed penalty notices issued.