COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 09, 2019

QUESTION NO.5

QUESTION: Councillor Carly Bailey

To ask the Chief Executive to provide further information related to the use of glyphosates that are outsourced to Oxygen and for him to make a statement on the matter.

Can the Chief Executive confirm that Oxygen are aware of the council motion relating to glyphosate use? A number of residents across the county have complained to me over the summer that they have seen people spraying glyphosates on public footpaths, outside there property and near to public parks. Nor did it appear that the staff member had put up signage to confirm that glyphosates were being sprayed, nor did there seem to be any concern as to wind conditions. Can the Chief Executive therefore also confirm that any entity acting on the council's behalf are in full compliance of the regulations relating to glyphosate use and what does the council do to ensure that this is the case?

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. The contractors staff engaged in this work are required to be properly trained in the task, are required to use the appropriate equipment including PPE and are also required to be registered with the Dept of Agriculture as a professional user of pesticides in accordance with the Sustainable Use Directive.   The Council meets regularly in relation to the provision of services under this contract and examines all relevant matters including the weed control element of the contract.  The contractor to date has only been required to display signage required for traffic management purposes.  The suggestion that signage should be displayed alerting the public to the fact that weed spraying is taking place will be raised with the contractor at the next available opportunity.

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.