Dispute over the extent of dog fouling problem
COUNCILLORS begged to disagree with a claim by environment officer Hugh Maguire that dog fouling is no longer a major problem in the centre of Wexford town.
Cllr. John Hegarty said he received feedback from people about comments made by Mr. Maguire at a recent local authority meeting, that dog fouling is not widespread in the town, apart from some suburban areas.
‘Could you point out a kilometre of footpath that is not affected?’ Cllr. Hegarty asked.
Mr. Maguire responded by saying that dog fouling is a problem in almost every town in Ireland and many initiatives have been undertaken in an effort to combat it, with Wexford County Council organising various awareness measures and campaigns.
The environment officer said he walks a lot of the regular routes around the town and areas such as the quays are quite good and he was prepared to stand over that. He added that suburban, peripheral areas of the town are probably worse.
‘I walk the Main Street very regularly and it’s not as bad as other areas of the town.’
‘We should be setting higher standards for ourselves than “not too bad”’, said Cllr. Hegarty.
‘We keep saying that a small element of irresponsible dog owners are causing the problem but there is a widespread impact on people pushing buggies, people in wheelchairs and people jogging around the town.’
‘You can’t go more than a few hundred yards without swerving around dog dirt’, said the Mayor of Wexford, Cllr. Leonard Kelly.
Mr. Maguire said the Council was putting a lot of work into addressing the issue of dog fouling but couldn’t have environmental wardens out 365 days of the year. ‘We are not sitting idly on our hands about this. We are trying to encourage people to be responsible dog owners.’