Kerry County Council will soon be asking waste collection companies who their customers are, to try to tackle illegal dumping.
It follows a motion at the recent council meeting by Fine Gael councillor Bobby O’Connell.
Cllr O’Connell called on the council to request all waste collection companies in the county to provide a list of all households and businesses who have a collection contract with them.
In its response, Kerry County Council said that under the Waste Management Act, the Department of the Environment has allowed local authorities to request customer information from waste collection companies.
The Department has also issued guidelines on how local authorities can obtain this information, taking account of issues such as GDPR.
The council said it’s currently examining these guidelines.
Cllr O’Connell said this will help to cut down on indiscriminate dumping that’s been going on in the county for decades.
He says once the council has a list of who has signed up for refuse collection, it will be very easy to distinguish who has not.
Kerry County Council also increased the number of private and public home inspections last month in relation to the disposal of domestic waste, which was part of a wider campaign.
The council says it is also examining the next steps in this campaign.
Cllr O’Connell told the meeting that the council will now know what doors it needs to knock on, once it receives this customer information from waste collection companies.
Fianna Fáil councillor Fionnán Fitzgerald said it's important to acknowledge there are those who applied to waste management companies but were refused, who shouldn't be tarred with the brush of others polluting the county.
