Residents of Killarney housing estates were subjected to fireworks for two-months leading up to Halloween.
Labour councillor Marie Moloney raised the issue at the monthly meeting of Kerry County Council.
She told the meeting that babies were disrupted from their sleep and animals were going wild as a result of fireworks being set off.
Cllr Marie Moloney says in certain housing estates fireworks are being let off on an ongoing basis in the lead up to Halloween; she says it’s not fair and is outrageous.
She says people in these estates did ring the guards, but says when the guards arrived those setting off the fireworks had left.
Cllr Moloney called on the council to issue a notice to all their tenants stating this is illegal and not acceptable; she also called for an advertising campaign highlighting this activity is prohibited, adding something must be done to stop this behaviour and it shouldn’t be tolerated.
In response, the council’s director of housing Martin O’Donoughe stated there was no basis whereby the council could target its tenants in this way; he said there was a mixed tenure of estates and there was no certainty that those setting off fireworks were council tenants.
Cllr Moloney stated she didn’t want to target the council’s tenants and stated she wanted a broad message saying this type of behaviour was unacceptable.
Kerry County Council told her it had received no official complaints regarding fireworks by council tenants or in estates where the council has a significant number of properties.
It also stated an awareness campaign is run nationally and locally by its fire service warning of the dangers of fireworks.
