COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 08, 2021

QUESTION NO. 15

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

To ask the Chief Executive to confirm the number of emergency calls received during the recent Christmas period and will he detail issues raised and make a statement

REPLY:

South Dublin maintenance crews are available to respond and standby crews respond and deal with any emergencies that occur outside normal working hours. Between 21/12/20 and 04/01/21 South Dublin County Council received 434 no. calls through the Council's Out of Hours & Emergency call service.

The calls received can be categorised under the following areas:

Burial Queries	3
Drainage	33
General	60
Housing	287
Parks	17
Roads	13
Water Services	21
Total	434

 

Drainage:

The majority of calls related to issues with foul sewers being blocked or overflowing. These were rectified through Council jetter crews being deployed and the main pipelines in the public domain cleared. A small number of calls were in relation to minor surface water flooding.

General:

Many of these calls are not emergencies and are simply customers seeking advice from various sections of SDCC.

Other calls reporting alleged criminal or antisocial behaviour are forwarded on to An Garda Síochána, with homeless enquiries and requests for emergency accommodation referred to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, operated by Dublin City Council.

Housing:

The vast majority of calls logged were housing related. Calls consisted mainly of customers reporting problems with heating systems and other plumbing issues, which were forwarded to the relevant personnel or external agencies for attention. It should be noted that each call is counted including repeat calls from customers requesting status updates.

Parks:

One tree reported down in a housing estate, the remaining numbers are customers locked in parks after closing time. Security company contacted to unlock gates. 

Roads:

Calls included traffic lights being out, or damaged- These are dealt with by SDCC’s Traffic Section, with assistance from An Garda Síochána, External electrical contractors and other SDCC departments if deemed necessary.

Fallen trees and flooding on roads are addressed by Road Maintenance operatives in a timely fashion, with input from the Drainage Section when necessary.

In addition to the customer calls, Road Maintenance carried out 17 no. gritting runs during this period.

Water Services:

Leaking or burst water mains, reported mainly from Irish Water, and rectified by Water Services operatives as soon as possible.