COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, July 10, 2023
QUESTION NO. 2
QUESTION: Councillor T. Costello
To ask the manager for a report on dog fouling. Report to include the method used by SDCC to clean up dog fouling and, on average, how many man hours per month are spent on this.
REPLY:
South Dublin County Council continues to look for new and innovative ways to help combat the issue of dog fouling, and over the last number of years has engaged in radio and cinema adverts to increase awareness around the issue of dog fouling.
Under Section 22 of the Litter Pollution Act 1997, where faeces has been deposited by a dog in any place to which the section applies, the person in charge of the dog shall immediately remove the faeces and shall ensure that it is properly disposed of in a suitable sanitary manner. An on the spot fine of €150 can be imposed on the owner of a dog who fails to remove dog faeces from a public place, with the maximum fine for this offence being €3,000.
The difficulty with enforcement of Section 22 is the requirement for witness testimony, to report that the offence happened and that an identified person is the person in charge of the dog. In the absence of such testimony, fines cannot be issued. The Council continues to encourage residence groups and/or individuals to assist the Warden Service in this regard.
Dog litter, if properly bagged can be disposed of in a standard litter bin. The Council provides standard type litter bins in its main parks and at the dog runs which have been provided in those parks. In total there are approximately 130 litter bins provided at parks locations in the County, this number has increased in recent years and will continue to increase as the need arises. There are a further 650 litter bins provided on streets and in villages and urban centres.
Dog litter is picked up in the same way as litter is through our cleansing services across the county which includes:
- The servicing of on-street litter bins on a daily basis, the service consists of full-time operatives servicing litter bins on dedicated routes each day and this includes servicing of bins on Sundays and bank holidays.
- Daily cleaning of town and village centres in Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan, Palmerstown, Rathcoole, Rathfarnham, Templeogue and Walkinstown. This service is also provided on Sundays and bank holidays.
- Daily cleaning of parks and servicing of park litter bins on a daily basis.
- The operation of mobile cleansing crews dealing with the cleaning and litter picking of parks and estate open spaces, including the response to illegal dumping and collections from Tidy Towns and community clean up events.
- The road sweeping service provided under contract to the Council by Oxigen Environmental Ltd.
These services are considered to be priority services within Public Realm, and in this regard, they are the first tasks to be assigned to staff each day. What this means in effect is that where a regular operative is not available on a given day a replacement is assigned to their task as a priority, before any other tasks are assigned.
Information relevant to the provision of these services is included in the reports on the Litter Management Plan which are presented to the area committees on a twice-yearly basis. Any issues raised by elected members through this process are taken into consideration and responded to in an appropriate manner.
Cleansing services are kept under constant review and as issues come to light through area committee business, membersnet and customer care items or through ongoing monitoring and supervision they are responded to in a timely manner. Where certain changes or improvements to a service are required then these have always been acted on and this will continue to be the case.
Issues such as the provision of additional street litter bins arise from time to time as area committee agenda items and where possible these are responded to in a positive manner with additional bins provided as requested by elected members. Similarly where locations of persistent littering or illegal dumping are raised by elected members then these are factored in to the regular response by public realm operations, with illegal dumping incidents being responded to within a 24 hour time frame where possible. As the county grows and new urban centres, public parks and residential areas become established then the services provided will have to expand accordingly.
A review was carried out in recent months of litter and cleansing issues which were brought to the attention of public realm staff through CMAS, membersnet and customer care. The results of the review suggested that there have been no major issues in recent times that would require any substantial change to the configuration of cleansing services as they are currently.
As dog fouling is removed as part of the general cleaning of an area, it is not possible to give the number of man hours that are spent per month on removal of dog fouling.