Cork Tidy Towns say increased enforcement is the key to addressing litter 

Increased litter fines won’t make a difference without increased enforcement, Cork Tidy Towns groups have said. It comes as figures show Cork City Council issued 11 times more fines than Cork County Council in the last 18 months.

Minister of state with responsibility for the circular economy, Alan Dillon, announced last week he had signed a commencement order that will see fixed-payment on-the-spot fines for littering to rise from €150 to €250 from September 1.

Figures show Cork City Council issued 929 fines across 2025, with 647 of these issued in the second half of the year. A council spokesperson explained the increase by saying: “Halloween and Christmas are always very high-littering events.”

The council issued 441 fines to June of this year.

Under the existing system, these 1,400 fines would have resulted in revenue of €213k. The same number of fines under the incoming system would realise €355k.

Meanwhile, Cork County Council has issued just 51 litter fines during the first six months of 2026, and only 73 in the entirety of 2025.

Serious enforcement gap

Social Democrats TD for Cork East, Liam Quaide, said: “These figures suggest a serious enforcement gap in Cork county. It is very difficult to understand how a county as large as Cork has issued just 124 littering fines in 18 months, when Cork city issued more than 11 times that amount in the same period,” said Mr Quaide.

While he said the fine increase was to be welcomed, “enforcement is the real issue”.

“Communities across Cork county are sick of littering and illegal dumping, and they need to see action on the ground,” he said.

Cork East Fine Gael TD Noel McCarthy, who is chairman of Fermoy Tidy Towns, agreed.

“Council staff are excellent, but they could do with more of them on the ground, because littering seems to be getting worse,” Mr McCarthy said. “People have begun dumping stuff at the bottle banks in Fermoy, leaving the council with no chance but to give them a free service and take it away. If the council move the bottle banks elsewhere, it’s the people using it properly who will be penalised.”

Named and shamed 

Mr McCarthy said that as well as a fine increase, if repeat offenders were “named and shamed”, it would go some way to solving the problem.

Cork City Tidy Towns groups also said that more enforcement of littering would be preferable to a fine increase.

Carolyn Miller of Togher Tidy Towns said: “Unless there is a warden out there that’s going to fine people, whether it’s dog fouling or litter, the price isn’t going to make any difference whatsoever.”

Tom Butler of Ballincollig Tidy Towns said: “We welcome the increase, but the most important thing is enforcement,” adding that the money from the fines would make additional wardens self-funding.

Fine Gael councillor Joe Kavanagh, who set up Mayfield and St Luke’s Tidy Towns, agreed, saying: “Littering is a bit like dog fouling, in that it’s difficult to police. It’s very hard to catch somebody or to prove someone was involved in court. A €250 fine won’t make a difference if you can’t catch them.”