Kinsale businesses call for council action to clampdown on dog fouling

KINSALE business owners are calling for increased council workers and on-the-spot fines for dog fouling.

The issue has sparked an ongoing discussion and regular commentary from locals, creating tension between dog owners and business owners.

Jill Brennan, owner of Kinsale-based jewellery store Stone Mad Gallery, said: “I am truly dismayed walking through town, I cannot believe the funding isn’t there to hire more council workers. We need to start issuing fines, and we need to get council people that can clean the footpaths.

Dirty

“Everyone will tell you that the town looks dull and dirty,” she said. The issue of continued littering and dog fouling has vastly increased since the pandemic, Jill said.

“I think in the last four years it has increased, it’s just everywhere,” she added.

Fine Gael representative for Cork South West, councillor Kevin Murphy said the matter had already been raised at the last Municipal District meeting in January.

“We need to get our best foot forward and try and get as much funding as we can into Kinsale,” Mr Murphy said.

“We’ve lost a substantial amount of the Kinsale council workforce over the years, about five or six members have retired, and those people have not been replaced. We are very short in numbers.

“At this stage, we have had no commitment from the chief executive. We certainly do need an injection of funds and additional staff.

“There is only one person on the ground, and he has taken on a lot more than he should be doing.”

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act last month revealed that Cork County Council issued 86 litter fines and six dog fouling fines in the first 10 months of 2023.

Data

The data also showed Cork County Council collected €8,250 in litter fine payments in the same period.

Calls were made recently for CCTV draft codes of practice to be published, to allow local authorities in Cork and across Ireland to tackle issues such as dog fouling and illegal dumping.

The Government is yet to sign off on the final codes of practice that would allow local authorities to use CCTV and other technologies to detect and tackle illegal dumping, more than a year after an act on the topic was brought into law.

The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 provides for the GDPR-compliant use of a range of technologies — such as CCTV — for waste enforcement purposes, while protecting the privacy rights of citizens.

Cork County Council was contacted for comment.