Cork City Council spent €1.2m cleaning up illegal dumping over two years

Cork City Council spent €1.2m cleaning up illegal dumping over the last two years, with new GDPR rules proving an obstacle to the use of CCTV to dissuade people from dumping rubbish in the city.

Labour councillor Peter Horgan asked the chief executive to outline the financial cost to the authority for cleaning up illegal dumping within the city limits for the years 2023 and 2024, along with the status of CCTV facilities to catch illegal dumping in all forms.

Paul Moynihan, the director of local area development and operations services, said the council’s cleansing section spends approximately €630,000 annually on the clean-up of illegal dumping.

The combined cost for 2023 and 2024 came in at approximately €1,260,000 — including wages, disposal of waste, and plant and machinery.

Stringent guidelines

Mr Moynihan added: “There are stringent guidelines in place for CCTV, and it is no longer possible to install cameras without adhering to prescribed processes.

“There is now a code of practice for the operation of CCTV for the purposes of prevention, detection, and prosecution of litter and waste offences as required by the Circular Economy & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022.

“There is now a requirement for a location specific DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment), as well as business case and suite of SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) so as to ensure compliance with the new codes of practice.

“There is also a requirement of public consultation and approval by a council oversight group for any new installation of CCTV.

“In accordance with the above, approval for CCTV has been sanctioned for one and the necessary documentation and processes will be put in place for another eight sites where it is considered that the introduction of CCTV would help to prevent illegal dumping.”

Astronomical

Mr Horgan asked a supplementary question at yesterday’s council meeting, inquiring as to where the eight sites are and what the timeline is for their creation. He was told that details would be provided to him shortly.

“I very much want to see the location of these CCTV sites.

“€1.2m is an astronomical amount of money.

“Imagine the amount of public toilets and playgrounds we could provide for that,”

said Mr Horgan.

“A message needs to go out with these CCTV locations that time is up for illegal dumping.

“My colleague, now TD Mark Wall, did trojan work over the last few years to undo the bureaucratic backlogs created by GDPR obstacles,” he added.

“We need to see these location progressed and the message go out to illegal dumpers that they will be caught.”