Halloween cleaning up still ongoing in many areas

Post-Halloween clean-ups are still ongoing in “multiple areas” across Tallaght, though less bonfires were recorded than previous years.

A member of the Parks department at South Dublin County Council said that there were 76 bonfires recorded in the Tallaght area during Halloween 2025, compared to 92 recorded during the same period last year.

Dublin Fire Brigade also reported significantly lower numbers of fire calls this Halloween compared to last year.

Between midnight on Friday, October 31 to midnight, November 1, they received 320 fire calls, of which 276 were Halloween-related, compared to 494 fire calls in 2024, of which 421 were Halloween-related.

In a statement earlier this month Dublin Fire Brigade credited this reduction to “heavy rainfall and the removal of bonfire stockpile material by local authorities”.

South Dublin County Council had implemented measures, including free recycling drives and rubbish pick-ups to help reduce the number of bonfire stockpiles in the lead-up to Halloween this year.

They also conducted awareness campaigns about the dangers of bonfires, and funded community activities “intended to divert children away from bonfires and other anti-social behaviour”.

The SDCC Public Realm department liaised with An Garda Síochána and local resident groups to identify and remove stockpiles of bonfire materials throughout September and October, and a dedicated monitored phone number was shared for the public to report stockpiles.

At the Tallaght Area Committee meeting on Monday, November 24, Cllr Adam Smyth (FF) asked the council how much had been spent “in the clean-up of stockpiling and clean-ups around Halloween period this year” in Tallaght.

“As clean-ups are still ongoing across multiple areas, it is not possible to put a monetary value on the bonfire clean-up for the Tallaght area at this time,” the reply from Brendan Redmond, SDCC’s senior executive Parks and Landscape officer stated.

“There were 76 bonfires recorded in Tallaght this year, representing a reduction of 16 compared to 2024,” he added.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.