Two motions about dog fouling, which were before the March meeting of the West Clare Municipal District (MD), gave rise to a good humoured debate amongst councillors.
Councillor Liam Grant (GP)asked the council to address the serious dog fouling issues in Lahinch, requesting it to target several days to enforce dog fouling fines in an effort to stop the issue. The councillor said he wants to see something similar to the “slow down” days conducted by An Garda Síochána.
He has also requested data on how many dog fouling fines have been issued by the local authority in Lahinch over the last three years.
“In Lahinch, this came up as I was involved in a beach clean on the St Bridget’s Bank Holiday weekend, organised with a couple of different community groups…the amount of dog fouling – I think I counted 20 bags of poo myself,” he said.
“There is a weird trend that is happening of people picking up the dog poo, then throwing the bag to the side and hanging it to somewhere possibly with the intention of picking it up later.
“We are turning into a bigger dog society, people walking their dogs, and I have no problem with that. People enjoy the dogs and they cannot all get tarred with the one brush, but there is a huge amount of people not picking up their dog fouling and I really feel there is a lack of enforcement.
“I asked how many people were fined over the last three years, and I think it was one fine in Lahinch over the last three years, and I think if you stood down there for an hour or two at any bank holiday, you would get quickly get three or four fines on people, and I think that has to happen.
“I give the example of An Garda Síochána who do slow-down days and try and tackle speed and make some kind of an example of people are being fined and this is being enforced. And I think the view on the street is nobody is enforcing it and people feel like they are going to are get away with it…I’d like that kind of approach; coming down there on certain busy, nice days and fining a few people, that would quickly spread word around town and it might actually change people’s behaviour.”
On a similarly themed motion, Fianna Fail councillor for North Clare, Shane Talty has asked the council to undertake an education and enforcement campaign against dog fouling on the streets of our towns and public areas across the MD.
“We cannot tolerate what is disgraceful behaviour. As much education as we can use, and it is going to require some enforcement, I mean what is being encountered on the Prom in Lahinch is nothing short of disgusting in what is one of the best amenities and public spaces in the county, and with a heavily trafficed kids playground in the area,” he said.
“And I think we need enforcement on this…any opportunity we get I think people need to be pulled aside and targeted with the appropriate fines – at least to get the message out there that there is implications for this kind of behaviour.”
Senior Executive Engineer at the Environment Section, Brendan Flynn in reply said the environment section has embarked on an extensive education programme in recent years and months aimed at combating dog fouling.
He said that in recent months communities have been provided with Green Dog walker packs and the issues has been raised in both the print and online media.
Sharon Dolan D’Arcy covers West Clare news. After completing a masters in journalism at University of Galway, Sharon worked as a court reporter at the Sligo Weekender. She was also editor of the Athenry News and Views.