More than 400 Dublin City Council staff clean-up before, during and after St Patrick’s Festival
Published on 18th March 2025
Dublin City Council would like to thank all its hard working Waste Management staff after their busiest weekend of the year.
Over the course of the St. Patrick's weekend, more than 500,000 extra visitors came to Dublin city centre. From Friday night at 10pm to 6am Tuesday morning, we had 442 staff working in the city centre on rotating shifts to ensure there was no gap in service.
As St. Patrick's Day fell on a Monday this year, it was the busiest weekend of the year for the Waste Management department and a number of extra shifts were in operation to ensure a first class street cleaning service was provided on a 24 hour basis.
Core tasks over the weekend included continuously emptying 684 litter bins, manually and mechanically sweeping footpaths, mechanically sweeping road channels, Litter Wardens on patrol and a comprehensive wash programme.
On the day of the parade we divided the city centre into 4 zones with each team focusing on their specific section with a view to cleaning streets to Grade A standard before they re-opened to traffic after the parade. 140 barrels were placed in key locations to provide additional capacity for litter where large crowds gathered and servicing was not possible. Between 30 and 40 tonnes of litter was collected in the city centre.
Waste Management also had crews on duty to service the areas outside the city centre, focusing on main roads, places of high footfall and locations where events where taking place.
St Patrick’s Festival is a marquee event and an opportunity for Dublin to present itself as a destination of choice for tourists. It is also a time for the people of Dublin to come to the city centre and enjoy the parade and festival atmosphere. Preparations for St. Patrick's Festival began at the start of 2025 with a number of key stakeholders including Festival Organisers, Dublin City Council Events Team, Waste Management, An Garda Siochana, HSE, Dublin Fire Brigade, Dublin Bus and Irish Rail.
ENDS