Dublin Council struggling with litter prosecutions

Most court summonses sent to people in central Dublin for littering are returned unsigned, The Irish Times reports.

Dublin City Council initiates prosecutions for littering by sending a court summons by registered post where a litter fine has remained unpaid for a total of five weeks.

However, just 13 of 84 prosecutions sought between January and March this year were successful, and 47 cases saw the court summonses returned after the recipients refused to sign for them.

Dublin councillor Ciarán Cuffee said: “If we’re issuing summonses and people aren’t signing for them, they’re just laughing at us. There has to be a better way of doing this.”