Kildare traveller camp blamed for dumping
Illegal dumping on the Curragh
A LOCAL politician hasn’t held back in his criticism of Government inactivity on the Curragh Plains following the number of complaints over the amount of fly-tipped refuse left there this summer by illegal Travellers.
“The Department of Defence (DoD) are the ones that need to get off their holes,” said Cllr Chris Pender.
“They are sitting on their hands, and I don’t see that changing unless they’re forced…and that needs to be progressed at national level,” he fumed.
“This is going to cost an awful lot to clean up, there’s household waste, there’s actual bedroom doors … and it shouldn’t be from the County Council’s budget, it’s the DoD’s responsibility – it’s their land,” he said.
He was referring to their continued foot-dragging over the long-awaited joint publication ‘The Curragh Plains Plan’ – jointly commissioned by the DoD and Kildare County Council four years ago at a cost of €150,000.
This study was precipitated in the wake of the DoD dumping “thousands of tonnes” of builders’ rubble in Donnelly’s Hollow back in 2018, and was due for publication in October 2022 after it got 3,700 formal responses from the public, but was inexplicably sent for a second round of public consultation by the then Minister Simon Coveney.
This delay in agreeing, and deciding, on the ultimate stewardship of the Plains has allowed its management to fall between the cracks of responsibility, allowing the formal manager – the DoD – to abrogate responsibility, much to the frustration of both the local authority and gardaí.
"I've grown up on the edge of the Curragh, and in days gone by there was always the unwelcome tradition of Travellers on the Plains for the summer,” said Cllr Suzanne Doyle.
“It was normally four to six weeks, but nothing has been as bad as this, they were there all summer. I mean, look at the model of the Phoenix Park,” she suggested.
She did reveal that there was a clarificatory meeting planned among “the shareholders”, which she had hoped might be held this month, although now conceded “it’s probably more likely in September”.
