Dubliners are being asked to continue to respect social distancing and to take their litter home with them while at parks and beaches within their 5km distance this Bank Holiday weekend.
Fingal County Council was “alarmed” to see a “dramatic increase this week in littering and dumping” in areas across the local authority.
They have warned people to respect public health guidelines with Gardai agreeing to increase patrols across Dublin this weekend.
Mayor of Fingal, Councillor Eoghan O’Brien slammed the recent increase of littering calling it "concerning".
He said: "I would appeal to people to remember we are still in the middle of a pandemic and that public health guidelines in relation to social distancing and travel are still in place.
"Those guidelines must be respected, even on a Bank Holiday weekend with nice weather, because lives are at stake."
Fingal County Council chief executive, Ann Marie Farrelly said: “We will be working very closely with Gardai over the weekend and will be ready to act on their advice if we have incidents of overcrowding or anti-social behaviour.”
Fingal County Council’s Director of Operations, David Storey added: “Our parks close at 9pm each evening and the gardaí will have extra night-time patrols over the weekend to prevent gatherings at night.
"We work hard to maintain our parks to a high standard but we need people to act responsibly and safely, especially at this time because of Covid-19."
Fingal County Council is asking people to:
- Only exercise within 5km of your home.
- Only gather in groups of up to four people.
- Observe the 2 metres social distancing protocol.
- Find somewhere quieter to exercise if a park, beach or open space is busy,
- Respect the designated time for cocooners to exercise in parks, which is 1.30pm to 3.30pm each afternoon.
- Do not dump your litter if a litter bin is full. Take it home and put it in your own refuse bin.
- Do not enter parks after the 9pm closing time.
