News
€2,500 fine for contravening new waste bye-laws
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By Anne Lucey
Fines of up to €2,500 on conviction will be imposed if people contravene new stringent waste disposal bye-laws.
On Monday, at the Kerry Council Council monthly meeting, councillors overwhelmingly backed the new laws which will come into force on April 1.
New rules for waste include: how it is presented on the kerb and how it is disposed of by businesses and householders.
Documentary evidence such as receipts, statements or other proof of payment will now be required for council waste inspectors who will be authorised to call door-to-door.
In Killarney, bins can’t be put out until 9pm the day before collection and must be removed by 10am after collection.
Outside town, the time for leaving bins out will also be 9pm and the deadline for removal will be 6pm.
Illegal dumping, as well as littering from dogs, has reached epic proportions, the meeting heard.
As well as requiring how clean and suitable containers are presented, the new laws aim to identify people who have no known means of rubbish disposal.
Fines of up to €2,500 on conviction as well as €500 a day for continued contravention of the bye-laws, especially where fixed payment notices of €75 remain unpaid, were adopted.
Director of Services for waste and the environment, John Breen, said the Department of Communication, Climate Action and Environment’s scheme piloted in Sligo in March 2018 would be adopted in Kerry. This is a scheme were Eircodes are used to identify households who are or are not signed up with authorised collectors.
Householders are obliged to provide their waste contractor with their Eircode, and these codes are then provided to the council.
Householders, not registered with a waste collector and bringing waste to a civic amenity site will also be asked to provide an Eircode when paying.
Persons who have provided their Eircode are excluded from council investigations.
However, it was not made clear how many new officials will have to be employed in the new inspection and cross checking processes by the council.
Filthy bins were being put out a small number of premises in Killarney, Cllr Michael Gleeson said. And there was no point introducing bye-laws unless they were enforced, he said.
Cllr Donal Grady said it was disgraceful the way some people in Killarney town stored bins and said planning had been given without allowing for bin storage. At night bins were practically “dumped” at the side of streets. He recalled when no one was allowed put out a bin until 7am the morning of collection.
“We had lovely clean streets then,” the councillor said.
Even during the town council a survey of householders showed 13 percent could not tell what they were doing with their waste, he said.
Littering had generally increased since the Council got out of waste collection and prices had increased, Independent Cllr Johnny Healy-Rae said.
The Council was therefore the cause of a lot of the litter problems and instead of calling to the homes of old ladies wondering where they were “discarding their few tea bags and bread wrappers” the Council should concentrate on the litter and dumping black spots which were well known in every area, he said.
Members of the extended O’Connor family, neighbours, and friends gathered at the ancestral homestead of Fr Sean O’Connor O.S.A. at Doonasleen, Knocknagree, to celebrate his 100th birthday. Fr Sean travelled from the Augustinian Community at Abbeyside, Dungarvan, County Waterford, where he currently lives, to mark the milestone at his childhood home.
Fr Sean was born on 9 June 1926 alongside his twin sister, Peg. He grew up on a farm with his parents and six siblings, all of whom are now deceased. He was baptised in Kiskeam but his family regularly travelled to Sunday Mass in Knocknagree.
He attended the old two-story school in Knocknagree, where he was taught by Miss Dennehy, an educator he later honoured in a poem titled “My first Teacher”. He recalls encountering the blind fiddler Tom Billy Murphy on his school journeys, which helped foster a lifelong love of music inherited from his mother, Maggie Jones, who played the concertina.
Known as Jackie during his youth, he took the name John O’Connor when he moved to New Ross for his secondary education with the Augustinian Order in 1939. He made his simple profession on 24 September 1946 and was ordained a priest in Rome on 13 July 1952.
Shortly after his ordination, Fr Sean’s health failed when he contracted tuberculosis. He spent two years at St Mary’s Hospital in Phoenix Park, Dublin, which included nine months of complete bed rest and two chest operations. The surgeries resulted in the loss of seven ribs and the permanent collapse of most of his right lung. Due to his health, his lifelong ambition to join the foreign missions could not be realised.
Following his recovery, Fr Sean served in various religious appointments across Ireland and England, including Callan, Fethard, Dungarvan, Carlisle, Drogheda, Galway, and Ballyhaunis, before returning to Abbeyside. At his 98th birthday celebration in 2024, it was noted that he was the oldest serving Roman Catholic priest in Ireland and the UK.
For his centenary celebration, Fr Sean wore his priestly vestments to celebrate Holy Mass at an altar prepared in the sitting room at Doonasleen. A framed apostolic blessing from Pope Leo XIV, a fellow Augustinian priest, was displayed on a nearby table.
Due to poor weather and the large crowd, the gathering moved to the new Knocknagree Community Centre for a reception. A special photograph was taken on the day featuring Fr Sean alongside his six surviving first cousins.
As a dedicated Gaelic football follower, Fr Sean was presented with a custom Knocknagree GAA jersey featuring the number 100. He later wore the jersey at the local football grounds for photographs, on a day when Knocknagree secured a league win against Kilnamartyra.
The day concluded with a visit from the Bishop of Kerry, Ray Browne, who travelled to the ancestral home to congratulate Fr Sean. Fr Sean noted that it was a historic occasion, marking the first time a bishop had ever visited the townlands of Doon or Tureen.
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