Fine Gael TD for Dublin Fingal, Alan Farrell, has stated that stronger measures must be introduced to combat illegal dumping, and he suggested the idea of a website that would publicly list repeat offenders who ignore or fail to pay their court fines.
“It’s time to think outside of the box in our efforts to tackle illegal dumping. A ‘name and shame’ approach may make offenders think twice before engaging in this practise.
“For those who fail to pay the fixed penalty notice and are taken to court, their names should be published either on the website of their Local Authority or in their local papers.
“Thousands of people volunteer with local Tidy Towns organisations in Fingal, and across the country, and work hard to keep our local communities clean. Skerries, having won the Tidy Towns competition, provides an example of the benefit that local Tidy Towns volunteers bring to our towns and villages. We cannot stand by while illegal dumping detracts from the work of all of those involved in keeping our local communities clean. Illegal dumping is a source of embarrassment to Local Authorities and the thousands of people across this country who work all year round to keep their communities tidy and it plagues both our rural countryside and our urban areas.
“We need further action to reduce this crime, and protect our environment. A number of Local Authorities have installed CCTV operations in known litter blackspots, but not all authorities have the required finance to do so. A good example of how this can work is the approach of Dublin City Council in the North Inner City. The Council released 12 CCTV stills and erected them on a wall at Frankfort Cottages near the Five Lamps in Dublin.
“At present, if a Local Authority can establish who owns material that has been illegally dumped, a fixed penalty notice is issued to the person. If they fail to pay this, they are then taken to court and prosecuted for illegal dumping. We have a number of deterrents already in place, and yet we still see illegal dumping on the rise and plaguing local authorities nationwide. Further action must be taken to protect both urban and rural areas in the North County and put an end to illegal dumping.”