SDCC to recruit 15 additional seasonal staff

AN additional 15 seasonal staff will be recruited by South Dublin County Council in the coming weeks to operate within the public realm section.

The move has been “cautiously welcomed” by Clondalkin Sinn Féin Councillor Mark Ward, who feels the local authority need to employ more staff to address an “epidemic of illegal dumping.”

Cllr Ward believes the privatisation of waste services is a major reason for increased levels of dumping across the county in recent years.

He had a motion at an area meeting last week calling for extra staff to be deployed in Clondalkin, and said he is initiating moves to bring “management of waste back into council control.”

Cllr Ward said: “It is my understanding that these new workers will be assigned to the grass cutting crew, which will then free up resources for litter picking prior to grass cutting.”

With the Gateway programme finishing up in February, Ward was concerned about the “potential depletion of resources available to the council.”

SDCC say the return to recruitment is a “key priority” since the lifting of the government’s moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the public service in 2015.

Cllr Ward continued: “When I was growing up in North Clondalkin it may have had many social and economic problems but at least it was clean.

“I am working on a motion for our full council meeting calling on the re-municipalisation of the waste management service back in into public control.”