Laois County Council has been allocated funding in a new scheme aimed to prevent littering, dog fouling and graffiti.
Minister Denis Naughten announced the new 2018 Anti-Litter and Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant-Scheme (ALAGS) which will provide local authorities funding to conduct public awareness and education campaigns.
Laois has been allocated €19,000 from the scheme and Fianna Fail TD for Kildare South Fiona O’Loughlin is calling on Laois County Council to consider ways to prevent people from leaving their dog fouling around the county.
She said: “This new scheme is a welcoming development and Laois has been granted €19,000 euro from the scheme.
“Dog fouling is a serious issue that needs to be addressed however, I have found a more serious issue is the lack of public bins for people to dispose of their collected waste.
“Although it is important to enforce fines on people who do not pick up their dogs foul, we should be thinking of ways to encourage people to pick up by providing the necessary public bins along popular walk routes and consider providing bags for people who forgot their bags for disposal.
“We’re trying to encourage people to get active and for children to get outside more and the facilities are not there for when they need them.
“I am calling on Laois County Council to consider installing smaller bins on lamp posts and possibly bags at these designated areas for people to use with the new funding from the Department.”
