As dumping continues, a councillor suggests exploring a composting scheme for horse manure

"The level of reporting coming in specifically on horse manure is phenomenal in Cabra-Glasnevin area," Brendan Doggett, Dublin City Council's manager for the area, told councillors at a recent meeting of the Central Area Committee.

It's not just in Cabra-Glasnevin, either. Illegal dumping of bags of horse manure has been a problem in Summerhill, the Liberties, Inchicore, and other parts of the city too in recent months.

At the meeting, on 20 October, Fine Gael Councillor Gayle Ralph had tried to table an emergency motion to discuss potential solutions to the issue.

"It was about finding alternatives, engaging with responsible horse owners and looking at opportunities for proper composting and reuse," she said later, by WhatsApp.

But Fianna Fáil Councillor John Stephens, who was chairing the meeting, didn't allow her to bring the motion.

The root of the problem was the council's decision not to accept horse manure for disposal at its Sweeney's Terrace depot in Dublin 8, Stephens said. And that happened back in January 2025, so "because it was closed over two years ago it's not really an emergency motion", he said.

On Tuesday, a council spokesperson seemed to dispute that direct link between the decision to stop accepting manure at Sweeney's Terrace and illegal dumping of manure around the city. It's "not a new issue or related solely to the closure of this facility at Sweeney’s Terrace", the spokesperson said.

And the council is "currently not considering the reintroduction of horse manure disposal facilities at our Sweeneys Terrace cleansing depot or indeed any other facility", she said.

"It is the responsibility of the horse owners to dispose of their horse manure legally and responsibly and just like all other residents/businesses pay the relevant costs of that waste disposal," she said.

Ralph, the Fine Gael councillor, said that "I do appreciate that waste management has outlined its position on many occasions but I think repeating the position doesn't actually solve the problem".

"What particularly frustrates me is that I believe there are practical solutions worth exploring," she said.

Closure

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, an average of two people a week paid for the disposal of their manure at the Sweeney's Terrace depot, and "many others" dumped their manure outside the depot or around the city, the council spokesperson said.

The council closed the service for health and safety reasons around access to and from the depot and the storage of the horse manure container within the depot, the spokesperson said.

There's a new-ish Yugo student accommodation complex (c.2022) facing onto Sweeney's Terrace, the short little road that ends at the gates to the depot, which has a sign saying "Dumping Prohibited: Offenders Will Be Prosecuted".

And then, right next door to the council's depot, down the end of the cul-de-sac there's a new 25-unit apartment block under construction. The entrance to the construction site is separated from the entrance to the depot by maybe a metre or two.

Was there any connection between these new neighbours, and the council's efforts to steer piles of manure away from these gates, and the depot inside?

"Student accommodation and/or a building site was not a factor in the stoppage of manure disposal at Sweeney's Terrace," the council spokesperson said on Friday.

In any case, now that the council doesn't accept horse manure at the depot, horse owners need to make other arrangements.

"There are private facilities that will accept horse manure for disposal for a fee and the issue here is that horse owners appear to want to be treated differently to other waste producers and have the City Council provide either collection or disposal facilities for their commercial waste which is a position that we do not agree with or accept," the spokesperson said.

Most horse owners do dispose of their manure privately, said Green Party Councillor Feljin Jose. The bags of manure being dumped around the city is from only a small percentage of owners, he said.

But the council's method of dealing with that at the moment isn't working – it should either reopen the Sweeney's Terrace depot for manure disposal, or clamp down on illegal dumping of manure.

"This is the worst of both worlds at the moment," Jose said.

Solutions?

Ralph said on Tuesday that she fully accepts that horse owners have a responsibility to dispose of their waste legally and pay appropriate costs.

"But when you withdraw a service without providing an alternative, you create a vacuum," she said. "Unfortunately, it's local residents around the city who are left dealing with the consequences."

Instead of leaving a vacuum, "I would like to see DCC bring together [its] Waste Management [section], responsible horse owners, private waste operators and community organisations to explore a sustainable solution," she said.

There are great examples of horse ownership around, like the stables at Scribblestown Lane in Dunsink, Ralph said. "I've been speaking with them about the potential uses of horse manure, particularly when properly composted," she said.

"Why aren't we bringing people from Scribblestown Lane stables and other responsible horse owners around the table to look at education, responsible waste management and opportunities to turn this material into a useful resource?" she asked.

Properly composted horse manure could potentially benefit community gardens, allotments and Tidy Towns groups, she said.

Enforcement on its own is not a strategy for solving the underlying problem behind illegal dumping of horse manure, Ralph said. "We need to combine enforcement with disposal options, education and engagement."

At the Central Area Committee meeting on 20 October, Stephens, the chairperson, said he would "liaise with other councillors to try and get a meeting with Waste Management to try to take on this problem".