Glyphosate still used by council to kill weeds
By Brendan Grehan
THE WEED-killer Glyphosate is still being used by the road-sweeping contractors working for South Dublin County Council.
At the monthly meeting of SDCC, Councillor Madeleine Johansson (People Before Profit) tabled a question asking the Chief Executive if glyphosate is used by the council or contractors in South Dublin as a weed killer.
The yellow marks around trees on green spaces is from using weed killer
The council replied stating that they carry out weed control in connection with their grass cutting, road-sweeping and village cleaning and maintenance operations.
They added that in May 2017, the elected members of the Council passed a motion banning any use of glyphosate in or close to public parks, public playgrounds and public gardens.
They added: “This ban has been implemented by Public Realm Operations since its adoption. Where the use of glyphosate-based weedkiller is not permitted in the locations mentioned, the council has had to utilise other methods of weed control – these range from identifying areas where weed control can cease completely, to utilising other methods such as weed removal by hand.”
The council said that in relation to weed control along public roads, footpaths and in roadside margins presents a specific problem due to the nature of the task at hand.
They stated that SDCC maintains close to 1,000km of roads including main roads, housing estate roads and industrial estate roads.
They added: “ Labour intensive methods of weed control are not appropriate to this task, such is the volume of work involved. The council’s road-sweeping contractor, Oxigen Environ-mental, therefore continues to use a glyphosate-based weedkiller to deliver the weed-control element of their contract.”
