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.