‘Not good enough’: Questions asked over excessive littering in Birr
Birr Municipal District Councillors condemned the littering in the area at the latest meeting of the elected members
Birr Municipal District councillors highlighted the excessive littering and dumping consistently happening in their locality and say that measures must be taken against it at the May meeting of the elected members.
Mark Finlay, Administrative Officer for Climate, Action, Environment and Rural Water was in attendance to update the councillors on the anti-dumping and littering initiative aimed at tackling the ongoing problem.
The 2026 anti-dumping initiative was open for applications from local authorities until May 15. The Offaly County Council Environment team will now compile a list of potential projects across the county which will include Birr MD.
Typically, Offaly County Council is allocated €80,000 - €100,000 under this DCEE grant scheme. Previous projects have included targeted clean-ups, CCTV initiatives and mattress amnesties.
The 2026 ADI calls for a renewed focus on projects aimed directly at tackling the illegal dumping problem. This will concentrate on four key areas which are prevention, abatement (including clean-up and CCTV), enforcement, education and awareness.
Following the presentation on the initiative to the elected members, Councillor Peter Ormond said that littering remains a massive issue and there is no sign of it decreasing. He stated: “In terms of litter control, despite all of the schemes and incentives for people to recycle, we’re still seeing a huge amount of people disposing of waste in a fashion that they shouldn’t be doing.”
He continued: “Whether that includes fly-tipping or people throwing out takeaways, bottles or coffee cups on the sides of the roads. It hasn't decreased in my opinion which is worrying."
"Littering hasn’t changed in terms of people’s mindsets and it’s not good enough to dispose of waste outside of the proper channels. However I would like to compliment all the local groups and volunteers who pick up litter in their respective areas.”
The Administrative Officer supported Councillor Ormond’s assessment on the matter. He responded: “As far as litter control is concerned, I would wholeheartedly agree with you that there is an ongoing problem. We've discussed it here in Birr previously in reference to the cemeteries but it’s also happening on the side of the roads.”
Mr. Finlay revealed that areas need constant attention to prevent litter from accumulating. “When you leave an area for a while, the litter does build up so it's about public awareness and helping the locals.
He elaborated that maintaining local areas requires a collaborative effort. “The environment team, the litter wardens and the environmental awareness officer will assist any group that wants to do a litter pick in their area by helping to collect the bags and in any other way they can.”
Councillor Audrey Hennessy Kennedy spoke about the persistent littering occurring in the cemeteries in Birr. “It happens in the old cemetery but now we are seeing it in the new cemetery as well. It's terrible.”
She continued: “People who are coming in to visit loved ones are leaving rubbish behind so they need to take responsibility and bring their rubbish home with them and dispose of it themselves instead of throwing it over walls or fences onto neighbouring lands, it's just not good enough.”
Councillor Sean Maher offered a solution that may alter the attitude towards littering locally. He answered: “I know in Birr, we have a good few bins in the area but they become far more isolated outside of the town and there tends to be more household rubbish thrown into those.”
He added: “If we could have a look at that and maybe put the bins in the town centre rather than outside of the town, it might discourage more littering. Businesses are now actually taking their bins back into their premises, but they need to actually be available to the public outside so that litter can be collected.”
Councillor Eleanor Clendennen echoed Councillor Maher’s sentiments by highlighting that bin locations could prove helpful in the quest to combat littering. She conveyed: “Bins are a massive problem, the ones on the outskirts of towns are actually fuller than what’s in the town centres.”
She continued: “Maybe the opening of the bins need to be made smaller going forward so people aren’t throwing their domestic waste into them as well as getting more bins in the centre of towns to cater for the rubbish.”
The Fine Gael representative concluded: “Concerning the illegal dumping, I know it's going on out in the countryside and up in the mountains but we may need to get CCTV or surveillance for some of the worst areas where it’s happening to try and catch them.”
Mr. Finlay addressed Councillor Clendennen’s suggestion of implementing CCTV as part of the initiative.
He replied: We would have to see if CCTV would have an effective use in the area. There were issues with using CCTV for a few years due to GDPR policies, but we can now put in cameras as part of the anti-dumping initiative which will focus on the worst-affected areas.”
Councillor John Leahy commended the work being done to stop littering and dumping.
He remarked: “We’d be at nothing without Tidy Towns and the support of the litter wardens, you can ring any of them, and they will pick up the rubbish morning, noon, and night and give out the bags and pickers but we need a bigger volume of people to be picking up the rubbish.”
However, Councillor Leahy admits that despite their best efforts, they are constantly facing similar issues while trying to eradicate litter. He declared: “You can nearly predict that once you go three or four hundred metres outside any town, the dashboard warriors are out in force littering.”
Mark Finlay responded: “Unfortunately, unless we have somebody standing on the edge of every town up to a few miles out, there’ll often be a collection of fast food wrappers on weekends.”
The Offaly County Council Cathaoirleach condemned the actions of those responsible stating: “I don’t know how anyone could think it's normal to let down the window of a car and fire waste out of it. It's beyond belief but it’s impossible to catch them, they look and check if there is anyone around. Anyone that does litter picking will realise that’s where the biggest problems lie.”