COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, September 13, 2021

QUESTION NO.20

QUESTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

To ask the Manager if he will be reviewing the rollout of the LED lighting programme, given recent reports that they have led to the decimation of pollinator insects in the UK.

REPLY:

The study referred to was undertaken in fairly rural area of the UK. The UK was an early adopter of LED technology with Public-Private Partnerships generally used to fund wholescale, mass replacement of conventional lighting. This was often done with little site specific design and with cost and energy efficiency as the main drivers.

In contrast in Ireland generally, and at SDCC in particular, our LED installations have been fully designed with strong spill light controls, lower colour temperature and dimmable profiles ensuring that light levels are reduced along with traffic usage. This is done using our own in-house expertise, utilising external specialist designers where necessary.  Additionally, all lighting installed in environmentally sensitive areas has additional measures such as lower colour temperatures and dynamically controlled lighting. These lighting installations are designed to the best practice guidelines as published by the Bat Conservation Trust and to the approval of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

As a result, we will not be reviewing our LED lighting programme. We have considered the environmental impact of night-time illumination as a fundamental design parameter even prior to the advent of LED Lighting and will continue to do so as lighting technology evolves.