Noisy neighbours face on-the-spot Garda fines

NOISY neighbours and ‘party animals’ will face the prospect of substantial on-the-spot Garda fines, possibly from next year, when a new bill on noise pollution is enacted.

“At the core of this bill is the need to ensure that people can have a good quality of life when faced with nuisance noise in commercial and domestic situations,” a Department of the Environment spokesman said.

Nuisance noise is a growing source of complaints for TDs as constituents discover that gardaí have little power in the area and that the local authority remedy, via the courts, can be bureaucratic and unwieldy. The bill, which was part of the programme for Government, grants “equal power” to gardaí in certain instances.

“The way that it has been structured up to now it has only been the local authority who could do anything for both private and local authority tenants, with court often being the only real solution. This approach is unsatisfactory and something more immediate was required. In this bill, there is a focus on direct and speedy remedies with considerable on-the-spot fines for those making noise. Noise pollution is to be viewed as harmful to an environment,” he said.

Continuously sounding alarms will also be targeted in the legislation, as will rural noise issues including the use of crow bangers to deter crows.

According to the Department of the Environment, noise caused by neighbours makes up the majority of noise complaints.

The source of the noise often dictates how it is addressed, with landlords running the risk of facing the Private Residential Tenancies Board unless they deal with complaints about their tenants.

It’s understood the legislation will also promote codes of practice for the construction and commercial sector.

A public consultation process took place last year with up to 235 submissions received.