Liberties horse dumping spikes as owners left with ‘no alternative’ by Council
Many horse operators have been left with “no alternative” than to dump waste since Dublin City Council stopped accepting horse manure in the Liberties.
For the past 30 years, the council has allowed horse operators to dispose of manure at their cleaning facility in Sweeney's Terrace . However, this process was halted in January due to health and safety reasons and without the necessary guidance on what horse owners should do moving forward.
This has caused a huge spike in illegal dumping as bags of horse manure have started to pile up around the Liberties. 68 dumping incidents were reported in 2025 - and the majority of them, 38, were in the Dublin 8 area, where the old facility is located.
Mulreanys Carriages owner David Mulreany spoke to Dublin Live about the impact of the council discontinuing this service and said, for many, they now have nowhere to dispose of their horse waste and it’s no surprise that problem has become more and more visible across the Liberties.
“Could you imagine Dublin City Council collecting your bins for 30 years and then all of a sudden they refuse to, what are you going to do with your bins? They're going to mount up right at your front door,” Mr Mulreany said.
Mr Mulreany explained that he’s one of the lucky few with a farm that helps deal with the manure problem, but that there’s plenty of horse operators who haven’t got any viable alternative. He said he also travels to Kildare every week where there’s a hay provider who utilises the manure for fertiliser.
“There’s other lads there that have absolutely no other way to get rid of it other than go up and try to literally put it out onto the doors of Dublin City Council,” he said. Mr Mulreany fears that by cutting manure services, the council is effectively trying to drive out the city's horse operators.
A Dublin City Council spokeswoman told Dublin Live: "The City Council stopped accepting horse manure at our Sweeney's Terrace cleansing depot in January 2025. This was the only location/depot that accepted horse manure for disposal with a charge.
"This service was discontinued primarily for health and safety reasons around access to and from the depot and the storage of the horse manure container within the depot. In 2025, the City Council through its citizen Hub Portal received a total of 68 reports that related to illegal dumping of horse manure.
"Of these 38 were in the Dublin 8 area. We have seen an increase in reported illegal dumping of horse manure across the city in 2025.
"The City Council is currently not considering the reintroduction of horse manure disposal facilities at our Sweeney's Terrace cleansing depot or indeed any other facility. As we no longer offer any horse manure disposal service, horse owners are now required to make their own arrangements for the disposal of their manure by taking it to a waste disposal facility that is prepared to accept it."
Liberties local and Sinn Fein Councillor Ciaran O Meachair said the issue is “definitely become a noticeable problem in the area.” He said: “You only need to take a walk up with Meath Street, Francis Street, and Thomas Street and you’ll come across horse manure."
He added the issue has been “created by Dublin City Council” and highlighted by residents, businesses, and the horse operators themselves. Cllr O Meachair said this issue highlights a lack of regulation in the industry and that it’s more than past time to start addressing long-standing problems.
While the council does provide a 24-hour cleaning service in some parts of the city centre, Cllr O Meachair said this stops just short of the Liberties. "If they were to extend that by just a few streets it would alleviate a lot of the problem and it probably wouldn't be a huge additional cost either," he said.
Although the council issued carriage drivers licences up until 2018, Cllr O Meachair explained it was then discovered that this was actually superseded by the 1853 Carriages Act and the industry has been unregulated ever since. He said this “overriding piece of legislation” meant the council didn’t actually have the power to regulate the industry.
“This is literally a Victorian piece of legislation that came only a few years after the famine,” he said. As an act that doesn’t address animal welfare concerns or anything to do with waste collection facilities, Cllr O Meachair argues it’s time to make some legislative changes and include horse manure services within them.
Plans to change the 1853 Carriages Act have been in limbo for years and have been “under review” since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It hasn't even made its way to the Dail Chamber yet,” Cllr O Meachair said.
Cllr O Meachair said addressing this issue does not seem to be a priority for central government and that local authorities are simply waiting to be given the power to enact bye-laws regarding horse operators. Not only would this allow them to address the manure problem, but could facilitate better welfare checks on horses, higher quality carriages, and ensuring operators are properly qualified.
“With that kind of system in place you could then ringfence money for things like horse manure collection,” he said. “It's caught up in bureaucracy.”
“It doesn't seem to be a priority for them and unfortunately the consequence of that is the local community in the liberties is being left behind. They are facing the consequences of this.
“This is a massive industry in the Liberties and I have no doubt they will continue to be a massive industry after regulations are brought in. It needs to be done in a regulated and in a safe way, that's safe for the customers, for the people operating the carriages, and also for the horses themselves.
“The fact that there's horse poo on several streets constantly and it is a huge health and safety issue. They haven’t removed the health safety issue, it hasn’t gone away. It’s just the council saying we don’t want the health and safety issue on our doorstep, but the consequence is it’s just being spread around the whole area.”
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