Bags of recyclable household waste under the CCTV sign and inset a broken pane of glass with bottle caps just left there for someone else to clear up.

A report by Sarah Burke in The Irish Independent in February of last year revealed that county councils around the country could now legally use CCTV evidence to prosecute people who dump their household rubbish and waste in areas covered by such technology.

The law covering the use of such evidence has a very focused and narrow remit and must be fully relevant and unambiguous in its dealings with the case it helps to put forward.

Ms Burke wrote that the change in the law came in under The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022.

Privacy Breach No Longer an Excuse

“County councils who tried to prosecute for dumping and littering were stopped when the offenders claimed their privacy was breached,” she wrote.

And, quoting Paul McAuliffe, a Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North West, she went on: “I am giving county councils a legal basis to use CCTV for litter and dumping blackspots.

“Drones, bodycams, and covert cameras may be used in the most serious cases of commercial fly-tipping and illegal landfills,” he added.

Back to Castleisland

Only during the week we carried a couple of photographs of indiscriminate dumping at the recycling base on the grounds of the ALDI supermarket in Tonbwee.

That was cleaned up quickly and order restored – for a while.

This Saturday morning the scene is marked by the same kind of indifference by people who decide that they have a right to dump what they don’t want wherever they feel like doing so.

CCTV Signs no Deterrent – Yet

And the fact that signs on the bins clearly state that the area is covered by CCTV means that they either don’t care or are of the belief in the now out-dated ‘breach of privacy’ if they’re captured on camera.

The ALDI carpark siting of the recycling bins is, at least, the fourth base to be tried and failed.  They started out in the old railway yard when it became the car park. It didn’t work out there because of the same kind of people and the same kind of bad habits. The bins also fell foul of the neighbourhood around the old Carnegie Library at the top of the town and, most recently, they had to be taken away from the LIDL car park for the very same reasons.

You can contact The Maine Valley Post on… Anyone in The Maine Valley Post catchment area who would like to send us news and captioned photographs for inclusion can send them to: jreidy@mainevalleypost.com Queries about advertising and any other matters regarding The Maine Valley Post can also be sent to that address or just ring: 087 23 59 467.