€165,000 spent by local authority to clean up mess after 157 bonfires

Illegal bonfires were lit in over 150 locations around south Dublin during Halloween 2025, according to the council.

Figures released by South Dublin County Council’s Public Realm team showed that the total costs to the council after Halloween last year was approximately €165,000.

In response to a request from Cllr Adam Smyth (FF) for a breakdown of Halloween clean-up costs in 2025, the Public Realm team said they “identified approximately 210 individual bonfires, across 157 locations” in the county.

A breakdown of the locations per electoral areas showed just three bonfires in Firhouse-Bohernabreena, six across Lucan, nine in Rathfarnham-Templeogue and ten in Tallaght Central.

The most bonfire locations identified was 56 in the Palmerstown-Fonthill area, with 39 in Tallaght South and 34 around Clondalkin.

“The total cost for the collection of all waste and the necessary repairs and reinstatement of grass areas, resulting from Halloween 2025, is approximately €165,000,” SDCC’s director of climate action Teresa Walsh said in the written reply.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme