Reply - M8 Litter Fines

This Councils calls on the Chief Executive take appropriate steps to ensure that all litter prosecutions take place in the closest Courthouse to the community where the offence is alleged to have taken place, so as to maximise the deterrent effect of prosecution for litter offences.

All incidents of illegal dumping reported or detected in any area are investigated by the Council's Litter Warden Service and all dumped material is searched for evidence. Where evidence is found, appropriate enforcement action is taken under the Litter Pollution Act 1997, as amended. Increasingly, it is found that no personal information relating to polluters is contained within the dumped material, with this information having been removed or shredded.

The Court Service provides dedicated list dates (civil and criminal) to Local Authorities in the Dublin Metropolitan District. In the interest of efficiency and for the proper allocation of resources, the current utilisation of court time provides for the best utilisation of the court facilities, ensures that Local Authority business is dealt with on the allocated day, and does not have to take its place behind the wide varieties of other cases dealt with by the Court.

The table below sets out the number of Litter Fines issued in each of the years 2015-2019, the number of cases referred to Law Department for non-payment, the number of new cases listed, the number of cases heard and the number of these cases that were successful.

Cases referred to Law Department for non-payment of Litter Fine
	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	TOTAL
Number of Fines issued	500	454	556	598	514	2622
Number referred to Law	131	151	136	157	100	675
Number of New Cases Listed	83	41	66	62	45	297
Number of Cases Heard	65	42	42	55	34	238
Number of Cases Successful	44	26	25	34	25	154
% cases heard successful	68%	62%	60%	62%	74%