The latest Comeragh District meeting saw Councillors push back against a Council Executive who said the City should be the focus of measures to prevent rubbish dumping.
The disagreement emerged after a question from Fine Gael Councillor, Liam Brazil, who queried if the Comeragh District was any closer to receiving CCTV in areas where rubbish is often dumped. He also asked if the Comeragh District might have another day for the disposal of bulky items, to prevent mattresses and the likes being dumped in rural areas.
Dawn Wallace, Senior Executive Officer for the Environment Department, replied: “In relation to CCTV … the first batch have gone in in the city as that was where the priority was in terms of complaints”.
“We didn’t have a bulky waste collection day [for Comeragh]. We didn’t have the funding for it. If people can put a mattress in their car and drive it up and dump it in the Comeragh they can drive it to the civic amenity centre and get rid of it there,” she said.
This latter comment was delivered in a light-hearted manner but did not land well with the Comeragh Councillors who pushed back against the suggestion that the Comeragh District was not an area of high offending.
“I think it [the bulky goods day] is a necessity and it’s important for people in the rural areas too,” said Cllr. Brazil.
“I’m surprised to hear that you went into the City with your CCTV, but the county is so important. I do believe there is more rubbish be dumped and collected out the County than is being collected in the city. I’m going to fight this case because I do believe it,” Cllr. Brazil said.
“We’re here in the Comeragh District (meeting) every month talking about rubbish. And we can see that when we have the collection, whether it’s the Comeragh clean up, or Ballymac’ cleanup or the cleanup in Kilmeaden every Saturday, there’s always rubbish there.
“I don’t believe anyone inside in the city is doing the same work,” he added.
Multiple councillors said they agreed with these comments.
However, Executive Officer, Ms. Wallace, disagreed, saying the available evidence does not support the Councillor’s position.
“As I have said on multiple occasions we don’t have the evidence of that,” Ms. Wallace replied.
“There are more reports of dumping in one street in the City in the entirety of last year than there are reports of dumping in the entire Comeragh District. That’s the level of problems we’re talking about and we have to target our resources in accordance with the evidence,” she said, adding: “It’s not that we are prioritising the City, it’s that we are prioritising where the biggest issues are”.
Cllr. Catherine Burke and Cllr. Seanie Power suggested the systems the council use may be the reason Comeragh is not seen as a priority area.
“If we are going to judge things on the CRM [the reporting system] it has to be effective,” said Cllr. Burke. “I think you have an inaccurate amount of representation on the CRM, and you are judging things off that.
“I also think that if the people of Comeragh can drive to the City [for bulky goods disposal] then the people in the City can drive to Comeragh also.”
Cllr. Seanie Power lent his support, saying phoneline delays would also prevent Comeragh residents from making reports.
“I phoned the 1800 number after seeing rubbish on the road and I was 10-15 minutes on the phone and I didn’t get anyone. If I’m a lay person, a person living in an area, and I go phone up, it takes so long to get through, people will say ‘I won’t bother’,” said Cllr. Power.
Executive Officer Ms. Wallace confirmed that the Comeragh District would receive the requested CCTV at some point, but a date was not yet available.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
