Drones could be deployed to detect illegal campers at popular Wexford beach
Wexford PeopleDrones should be deployed at one of Ireland’s most popular beaches to prevent illegal campers from setting up tents and having parties in the dunes. That’s according to Wexford councillor Leonard Kelly who said the number of people camping at Curracloe during the fine weather is posing a risk to the area’s natural ecosystem.
Speaking at the July meeting of the Wexford Borough District, Cllr Kelly said the influx of people to the popular beach earlier this month had caused potentially long-lasting damage.
“We’ve been fortunate not to have had permanent damage to some of our sand dunes in Curracloe from people camping and leaving horrendous messes behind them,” he said. “Are we exploring solutions to prevent people from illegally camping? I know we have patrols, but they are so limited in terms of what they can do. Are we going to look at using drones to ensure that camp-sites don’t open up on our sand dunes and potentially destroy the whole ecosystem there?”
Environmental engineer Hugh Maguire estimated that there had been up to five thousand people at Curracloe on the Saturday of the weekend in question and that council staff had been monitoring behaviour to the best of their ability.
“When our beach wardens come across certain situations they contact gardaí and its members carry out their own patrols,” he said. “As recently as last weekend we happened upon such an incident and we’re following it up and we may be able to take some enforcement action.
"In addition to our beach wardens our environment wardens also carry out patrols there but it’s a big, open space and people can arrive with a tent in the boot, it’s hard to monitor everyone; but a lot of people will comply once they realise there’s no camping permitted."
Hoping that any future good spells of weather won’t lead to the kind of wildfires seen at the beach in recent years, Mr Maguire said anyone who wished to camp in Co Wexford should do so where it’s permitted and “learn a bit about the outdoors” before doing so.