merrion street

Ministers Peter Burke and Darragh O’Brien have welcomed the provision of additional bins and outdoor facilities across the country this weekend and into the summer.

The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is providing funding to local authorities to support their work in keeping our outdoor spaces clean, and to help them provide the infrastructure and facilities required to ensure the safe enjoyment of our public spaces. This includes additional public toilets in the city centres and across the country at other locations such as beaches. Local authorities are also providing more bins in key areas and are increasing the frequency of emptying with support from central funding.

Minister Burke said:

“The Government has been very clear that this summer will be strongly focused on outdoor spaces and activities, and I’m delighted that we can support our Local Authorities as they work to ensure our public spaces can be enjoyed by everybody in a safe and responsible way as we open up over the coming months.

I want to pay tribute to the Local Authority teams who are out multiple times each day cleaning our streets and I would urge people to take personal responsibility too – it goes without saying that individual behaviour and personal responsibility are crucial in helping us all to stay safe while enjoying the outdoors this summer.”

Minister O’Brien said:

“Our local authorities have a lead role on the management of our public spaces and they are working incredibly hard to deal with the challenges of this summer’s outdoor focus in a responsive and balanced way.

Across the country they continue to provide for additional public spaces to facilitate outdoor dining, with the costs associated with outdoor dining licenses now waived for the year. Other measures being taken range from the provision of additional parklets outside premises to the pedestrianisation of streets. Our Local Authorities are also in regular contact with local businesses, An Garda Síochána and other local stakeholders to provide every support possible for a safe outdoor summer that we can all enjoy.”