COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL
Monday, September 11, 2023
QUESTION NO. 43
QUESTION: Councillor C. O'Connor
To ask the CEO to detail plans to deal with the challenge of the forthcoming Halloween Season; 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 2023 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 will take place throughout September and October as in previous years and will intensify as Halloween approaches.
- The Public Realm Section will have operational staff on duty over the October bank holiday/Halloween weekend collecting bonfire materials, in 2022 these collections captured in the region of 283 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 Country 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 in 2020, 2021 & 2022. 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).
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
The Council is running a mattress amnesty again in 2023 in conjunction with our social enterprise partners RecycleIT. Used mattresses are at present and will be collected, free of charge, at a number of designated collection points on dates during the months of August and September this year. This event ran very successfully in 2022 with close to 1,000 used mattresses collected. A total of 6 individual community collection days, covering the breadth of the County, will take place and details of these have been published both online and in the local press. Anyone unable to attend these collection days, will have an opportunity to drop their unwanted mattress off with our partners, RecycleIt, at their premises in Crag Industrial Estate, D22, free of charge.
The Bulbs not Bonfires Scheme continues to run annually as part of the Council's response to issues arising at Halloween. This is part of the wider Social Credits Scheme which is operated by the Council's Environmental Awareness Section. In response to the suggestion here, and to similar requests received, consideration is being given to changing the type of bulb provided to participants in the scheme. To date the Council has issued daffodil bulbs only and these can continue to be provided to community groups who request these. Where a group requests pollinator friendly bulbs it is proposed that crocus, muscari, snowdrop, allium and other bulbs can be supplied. The Council policy is to map areas of biodiverse planting and in time this mapped information will be made available to the public. The assistance of community groups who plant such areas will be requested in this mapping process, so that the Council's grass cutting programme can be organised to work around the areas which are planted by community groups. For more information please contact the office at envawareness@sdublincoco.ie
A total of 184 bonfire sites were recorded around the County in 2022, this was similar to the number recorded in 2021 and was a substantial reduction from the 280 sites recorded in 2020. There were a number of factors to which the reduction can be attributed and these include the vigilance and efforts taken by local residents to prevent bonfires in their areas. The Council held meetings with Kilnamanagh Neighbourhood Watch as well as residents from Aylesbury and Tymon North in 2022 in advance of Halloween to coordinate the efforts of the residents, the Council and the Gardai in identifying and removing material stockpiles and minimising the impact of bonfires on those areas. The pre-Halloween collections of the Council show an increase from 2020 in materials intercepted before Halloween with Council crews out collecting material on 13 of the 14 days prior to Halloween. It is proposed that meetings with concerned residents groups as mentioned above will be arranged again this year and that the efforts of public realm crews to intercept materials before they reach a bonfire will continue at a level similar to recent years.
A comparison of bonfire numbers and tonnage statistics for 2020, 2021 & 2022 is set out below.
| 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |
| Number of bonfires | 184 | 180 | 280 |
| Tonnage collected before Halloween | 283 | 332 | 237 |
| Tonnage collected after Halloween | 296 | 276 | 355 |
| Total tonnage collected | 579 | 608 | 592 |
| Total costs | €155,000 | €155,000 | €150,000 |