Budget of €30k adequate for ‘foul play’ action, says council
By Maurice Garvey
DUBLIN City Council is content that resources for an undercover dog-fouling operation are adequate to deal with “not so pleasant” offenders.
Last year, The Echo reported how city council inspectors and undercover gardaí were sniffing out offenders who allowed their dogs to foul on pavements.
The pilot programme was rolled out over 80 hours between August 13 and October 4 – and proved effective with 25 fines of €150 issued.
Offenders were targeted at two test sites in Dublin 12.
Naturally, a number of offenders were “less than amicable” when approached by members of the public domain unit – but back-up gardaí prevented any serious assaults.
The council have a budget of €30k for 140 hours for the initiative – which costs €214 per hour.
Over half of that budget remains and will be utilised.
At the Dublin South Central meeting last week, councillors praised the public domain unit for their “creativity” to tackle the problem, and said they would be supportive if the project was rolled out across the city.
Paul Rainsford, DCC Public Domain Manager, said: “It is a very expensive process. We concentrate in areas with large dog use, and can’t afford to hang around.
“We had a budget of €30k, which buys us 140 hours of active enforcement. Of the existing 60 hours, that included 12 shifts. We estimate a further 80 hours will provide 15/16 shifts. Some chose not to pay the fines, and were brought to district court for hefty fines of €500.”
In relation to the health and safety review, Mr Rainsford said: “There could be a criminality responsibility on my shoulders if I had to address any issues. We carried out a standard review based on interactions with various people. Some were surprisingly pleasant, some not so pleasant or amicable.
“Our provisions were robust and adequate to minimise risk to an acceptable level for all involved.”
In Dublin last year, there were 40 Section 22 Litter Act offences handed out – 35 of which were in Dublin South Central.
