COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, January 13, 2020

QUESTION NO. 8

QUESTION: Councillor M. Johansson

To ask the Chief Executive how many reports of bonfire materials were received prior to Halloween in the area, including which sites, and how many of those sites had bonfire material removed?

REPLY:

The Council received in excess of 150 reports of stockpiled bonfire materials prior to Halloween.  The vast majority of these sites were cleared of these materials with a total of 237 tonnes of unburnt bonfire materials collected by public realm crews before October 31st. Early contact was made with the Gardai to ensure that information was exchanged between SDCC and AGS and that assistance was provided as necessary in the effort to locate and remove the threat associated with bonfires and the storage of bonfire materials. A small number of sites could not be cleared due to threats to public realm staff, such sites were left by the public realm section on the advice of the Gardai.

The number of bonfires recorded in 2019 was 226, which is down from the number recorded in 2018.  A total of 585 tonnes of waste has been collected this year and 237 tonnes of that was captured pre Halloween and before it was set on fire. The total cost of the Halloween/Bonfire related work to date stands at €102,566 and this is expected to rise to around €150,000 when all costs have been included.  Reinstatement of bonfire sites will take place in the Spring, when ground conditions will have improved.