Public bins cannot be emptied overnight in Galway city centre because local authority staff are fearful of physical and verbal assault by late night revellers.
This damning insight into the late night culture of Galway city centre was revealed by Galway City Council’s director of services Patrick Greene in response to questions from councillors on refuse and litter strategy.
“It’s simple; after around 9pm, the [high viz] council jacket attracts aggression,” said Greene, in response to a question from Councillor Shane Forde (FG ) on why high street bins are not emptied on Saturday nights. “If you want to increase this service at night, you’ll have to put it in the budget as it will require an uplift in manpower. It must be funded, and resources are already stretched,” he said.
Speaking to The Advertiser, Cllr Forde says he thinks this reasoning is “nonsense”, and that council staff currently begin cleaning the streets at 5am “When the chances of them coming across people completely inebriated are much higher”. Forde suggest the city council should look at other towns for inspiration on how to tackle city centre litter, and highlighted Killarney which has banned disposable coffee cups because of littering, introducing a €2 deposit scheme for reusable cups instead.
“I think this is BS, and why is the council championing a night-time economy if it can’t empty the bins at night?” says Councillor Níall McNelis. “I have heard of nothing negative from council workers about [emptying bins] at night. They do a fantastic job cleaning the city before morning, and it’s silly to conflate what is a budget issue with a safety one,” he says. “The only thing threatening to attack staff is seagulls, and officials should be recommending to councillors solutions for problems, not problems for problems.”
Councillor Donal Lyons (Ind ) suggested that the city council should reduce the aperture in public bins in suburban areas to prevent people filling them with household rubbish. “For example, we had bins in Seacrest for 30 years, and then they were gone because of illegal dumping. The Council should be able to compare lists of local addresses with customer lists from refuse firms to see who doesn’t have an account.”
Councillors from the east of the city brought up persistent litter issues in and around Ballybane, a neighbourhood with the worst score in this year’s Ibal national litter survey. “There is so much rubbish around and council staff are not cleaning up on a consistent basis,” complained Councillor Declan McDonnell (Ind ), while Councillor Terry O’Flaherty (Ind ) noted “bags of rubbish” are regularly dumped at O’Sullivan Park between Wellpark and Mervue.
