COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE

Monday, October 18, 2021

QUESTION NO.7

QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor

"To ask the CEO what arrangements are now in place to deal with the challenge of the Halloween season in Tallaght and will he respond to the calls made at our September meeting for particular action in this regard in Aylesbury, Kilnamanagh and Tymon North; will he give assurances and make a statement?".

REPLY:

The Council recognises the difficulties that Halloween causes for many communities through the illegal burning of waste on Halloween bonfires, the damage to local amenities, and the threat to property and local services.
In response to Halloween in recent years the Council has adopted a cross departmental approach utilising the services of Public Realm, Waste Enforcement, Environmental Awareness, Library Services, Housing and Community Services Departments to prevent damage and promote the “Safe Halloween” message. The Council's response to Halloween in 2021 will involve the following elements as it has done in other recent years:


• Various awareness measures to highlight the dangers associated with bonfires and the harm done to the environment.
• Funding of community-based activities which are intended to divert children away from bonfires and other anti-social behaviour.
• Action by the Council's Environmental Licensing and Enforcement Section to deal with commercial premises and their obligations to properly store their waste including waste tyres and pallets (including aerial surveys of premises where necessary).
• The Public Realm response to remove stockpiles of bonfire materials has commenced and will continue throughout September and October and will intensify as Halloween approaches.
• The Public Realm Section will have operational staff on duty over the bank holiday weekend and the Halloween weekend collecting bonfire materials, in recent years these collections captured in the region of 250 tonnes of materials and diverted it away from bonfires.
• Liaison with An Garda Siochana with regard to action being taken by them and by the Council in relation to this matter.
• Liaison with local residents groups who can help to identify the locations of material stockpiles.
• Implementation of the ‘bulbs not bonfires’ scheme which is a reward provided through South Dublin County Council’s Social Credit Scheme. This initiative provides communities with flowers in the Spring instead of scarred open space throughout the year. In recent years the Council has spent approximately €2,500 per year on bulbs for this popular scheme and it is envisaged that a similar sum will be spent again this year on the scheme.
• The social credits scheme will once again facilitate groups who are registered on the scheme with the disposal of materials at the Council's civic amenity site in Ballymount, and this will help to reduce the amount of materials being handed over for bonfires.

Electrical Recycling Collections for Halloween.


RecycleIT, in association with South Dublin County Council and in partnership with WEEE Ireland hosted a series of free door to door electrical recycling collection days in residential areas across South Dublin prior to Halloween 2020. These collection days are now annual events and help ensure hazardous electrical equipment and batteries don’t find their way onto seasonal Bonfires. This scheme helps residents to recycle all types of electrical, electronic and battery-operated equipment including old heaters, electronic toys, TV’s, washing machines, cookers, kettles, phones and computers, and any other item with a plug or battery (including batteries). RecycleIT are in contact regularly with residents associations regarding this service and at present 3 such collections are arranged for the period prior to Halloween.
Recycle IT is very happy to work with community groups and resident’s associations to arrange free electrical recycling collections in September and October and throughout the year. Groups can call 01 4578321 or email info@recycleit.ie to learn more and take the first steps to arranging a FREE collection event for your estate or neighbourhood.


Mattress Recycling


As part of South Dublin County Council’s Mattress Amnesty 2021, our social enterprise partners RecycleIT have been collecting used mattress, free of charge, at a number of locations during October. Further collections this week are:
• Monday 18th October 2021- Rathcoole Community Centre Car Park, Rathcoole, Co. Dublin
• Thursday 21st October 2021- Tymon Park Car Park, Limekiln Road, Dublin 12
All collections will take place between 9:30am and 12:00pm
Alternatively, mattresses can be dropped off Monday to Friday, from 10:00am to 1:00pm, or on Saturdays (16th, 23rd & 30th October) from 09:30am to 12:00pm at RecycleIT Facility at Crag Terrace, Clondalkin Industrial Estate, Dublin 22
Saturday 30th October is the last date for drop offs, so don’t leave it too late. Thank you to all who have participated to date. For further information or if any community groups wish to get involved with organised local collection days, please contact Recycle IT on 01-4578321.

In response to the calls made at the September meeting, we are currently arranging meetings with residents in a number of areas (Kilnamanagh, Aylesbury and Tymon North) and local councillors will be welcome to attend if they wish, these will most likely be virtual meetings. We will invite the Gardai to each of the meetings also.