COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 08, 2019

QUESTION NO. 5

QUESTION: Councillor Carly Bailey

To ask the Chief Executive to confirm what methods are currently in use for weed control and in particular what percentage is based on the use of glyphosates and whether the Chief Executive has considered alternatives such as those trialled by DCC including: mechanical weed control using spades and shovels, 

a hot foam known as ‘Foamstream’ with no chemicals that kills the weed and, 

a method known as ‘New way’ spray which uses vinegar.

And for the Chief Executive to make a statement on the matter.

 

REPLY:

South Dublin County Council carries out weed control in connection with its grass cutting, road sweeping and village cleaning and maintenance operations. The elected members of the Council passed a motion in May 2017 banning any use of glyphosate in or close to public parks, public playgrounds and public gardens.  This ban has been implemented by Public Realm Operations since its adoption.  Where the use of glyphosate based weed killer is not permitted in the locations mentioned the Council has had to utilise other methods of weed control and these range from identifying areas where weed control can cease completely to utilising other methods such as weed removal by hand.  In addition, trials are currently underway on the use of non-glyphosate based weed killer however the results obtained to date are not conclusive.  SDCC staff have attended trials run by other local authorities on the use of hot foam and hot water-based weed control techniques however these have been deemed to be not suitable for our purposes. 

Weed control along public roads, footpaths and in roadside margins presents a specific problem due to the nature of the task at hand.  The Council maintains close to 1,000km of roads including main roads, housing estate roads and industrial estate roads.  Labour intensive methods of weed control are not appropriate to this task, such is the volume of work involved.  The Council's road sweeping contractor, Oxigen Environmental, therefore continues to use a glyphosate-based weed killer to deliver the weed control element of their contract. 

This Council will continue in its efforts to reduce the use of glyphosate in its weed control operations and in keeping with the National Pollinator and National Biodiversity Plans.