Litter wardens have been seriously assaulted while trying to tackle some of Dublin city's dumping blackspots.
The head of Dublin City Council says the enforcement system is putting council staff at high risk of being attacked.
Following requests from councillors to crackdown on littering, Owen Keegan told reps from the city's central area that wardens have been seriously assaulted when they tried to issue fines to offenders.
The chief executive of the local authority says that asking staff to tackle dumpers was putting them at an unacceptable risk according to the Irish Times.
Mr Keegan says the litter enforcement system is ineffective and unproductive with serious dumpers giving false names when tackled, while those involved were no longer leaving identifying documentation in dumped bags.
He says planned legislation allowing local authorities to use CCTV to combat dumpers may help but it will remain difficult.
