Reply - Q23 Reduction in Herbicide Usage

To ask the Chief Executive if he has considered reducing or stopping the use of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides in the county from South Dublin County Council? For example, Tidy Town groups use hand or small tool weeding which is a fantastic effort and manage to do a superb job.

South Dublin County Council is committed to reducing the use of glyphosate in it's maintenance operations. A partial ban on glyphosate adopted by the elected members in July 2017 remains in place and is enforced in public parks, gardens, and play spaces. In these areas weed growth is managed through hand removal, strimming, mowing or by allowing vegetation to grow to promote biodiversity. Complementing these measures the Council has significantly shifted its approach to open space management since 2019 with over 210 hectares of meadows (long and short flowering meadows) now in place across the county. This supports biodiversity and aligns with the aims of the Council’s Pollinator, Biodiversity and Climate Action Plans.

Glyphosate-based herbicides are currently used by the Council's Public Realm Operations Section primarily on high profile entrance roads into the county and in the provision of the road sweeping services contract for the control of weeds on hard surface areas. The usage of herbicides is decreasing in the Council's maintenance operations with a 13% reduction in usage over the three years from 2022 to '24 as previously reported. The Council has now entered into a new contract for road sweeping services including weed control and this is the single largest user of herbicide in the Council's maintenance operations. A requirement has been included in the new contract for a 10% reduction annually in the use of glyphosate based herbicide through the control of weeds by alternative environmentally friendly means and this will reduce the Council's use of glyphosate by half over the life of the contract. This reflects the Council's proactive efforts to minimise reliance on glyphosate in line with the Sustainable Use of Pesticides Directive as well as our own Biodiversity, Pollinator and Climate Action Plans.

In support of Actions N14 and N15 of the South Dublin County Council Climate Action Plan this Council partnered with Kildare County Council and a number of other local authorities on a research programme which led to the 2024 publication Guidelines for Increasing Biodiversity & Alternatives to Herbicides in Public Open Spaces. This guidance promotes the reduction of glyphosate through alternative weed control methods, native planting, and biodiversity-led maintenance approaches. A number of alternative weed control methods such as Hot Foam and Hot Water treatment were trialled as part of the research however these methods have not proven viable to date due to low weed mortality rates and the need for frequent reapplication. Further efforts have been made recently to identify suitable alternatives and in this regard 'electro-physical' destruction of weeds has also been trialled. Again this method did not prove to be satisfactory however further trials will continue to be carried out until such time as a range of alternative treatment methods have been identified as suitable in the varying types of locations that the Council maintains. The complete removal of glyphosate from the Council's maintenance operation will not be possible as it is the only effective means of controlling certain alien invasive species such as Japanese Knotweed.