DNA dog poo testing to hunt down owners leaving faecal matter on streets will not be rolled in Dublin city because it is "too complicated".
Complaints of doggie doo doo are commonly made to councillors up and down the country. And Dublin is no exception.
The issue is regularly raised at council meetings and solutions to the problem are hard to find. Shockingly, over a three year period Dublin City Council only issued two fines for dog fouling.
One county council came up with a creative solution to the problem. Leitrim County Council rolled a DNA dog poo testing programme to rid our street of dog filth in 2021 which has had some success.
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Councillor for Carrick-On-Shannon Thomas Mulligan told Dublin Live the towns of Leitrim have seen less dog poo since the scheme was introduced. He said: "It has been helpful in dealing with the problem - maybe not as effectively as we would have liked because there is still somewhat of a problem with dog poo on the streets.
"It is certainly unacceptable for buggies and wheelchairs and things like that. We probably could be enforcing it to a higher level than we are but I suppose we were trying to stave off coming down heavy on people until they get a chance to correct their ways."
Despite the scheme's success in Leitrim and "many interesting ideas" being presented at a seminar, DCC decided against rolling it out here.
In response to a question from Councillor Anthony Connaghan, DCC boss Owen Keegan said: "Members of the Animal Welfare Unit and Waste Management Section attended a seminar on this topic organised by Leitrim County Council and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
"Although this National initiative proposed many interesting ideas, the practicalities of operating the program were deemed too complicated at this point."
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