Council to ask Re-Turn to help with cleaning bills as 'scavengers' empty bins across Dublin

Eva Osborne

The chief executive of Dublin City Council has said "scavengers" are emptying bins in search of bottles or cans to return.

Richard Shakespeare insists local authority crews are cleaning up the rubbish as often as they possibly can.

He said this problem is common on his route between the Mansion House and George's Street.

Shakespeare said Dublin City Council will be asking Re-Turn for money to help pay the cleaning bills.

Speaking on Newstalk, he said: "That extra cleaning piece, it probably means I have an extra 10 people on the streets at any given point in time to react to that.

"And when I look at the cost of the 10 people, it is anywhere between half a million and a million, depending."

Re-Turn said it was not informed about these costs and it is happy to engage on the matter.