Killarney civic leaders voice anger at jarveys fouling town with horse dung

Calls were made yesterday for action against a number of Killarney jarveys who are leaving horse dung on the streets of the Kerry town and in the National Park.

The demands for action follows a serious caution from the Irish Business Against Litter group which pointed out “unacceptable horse fouling was reappearing noticeably in the park and the town centre itself”.

Killarney finished sixth in IBAL’s national litter league of large towns with a “cleaner than European norms” judgment.

But the judges warned the town’s multi-million euro tourism industry would suffer if the fouling resumed.

Following a long controversy, culminating in a High Court case, jarveys in the National Park have since 2010 been obliged to use dung catchers.

Jarveys operating in the town must use them under town council by-laws.

Killarney Chamber of Commerce and Tourism vice president Johnny McGuire yesterday said there had been a huge improvement in street cleanliness since the introduction of the devices which were instrumental in Killarney winning the top Tidy Towns award last year.

However, Mr McGuire, a member of the Tidy Towns’ committee, said standards “had slipped a little” and a small minority of jarveys had got careless or were ignoring the regulations.

Mr McGuire urged the town council to monitor the situation and, if necessary, enforce the regulations.

Independent town councillor Donal Grady, whose family are in the jarvey business, said 95% of jarveys abided by the regulations and were annoyed with the minority who did not.

He said two jarveys were not repairing their dung catchers and allowing them to overflow, while one jarvey had been operating without having a device.

Mr Grady said he had given the names of the offending jarveys to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the town council and Killarney Tidy Towns committee.