Fórsa’s Municipal Employees’ Division is to contact Dublin City councillors about the growing problem of fly-tipping in the capital. The divisional executive has set up a sub-committee to implement a union campaign on the issue.

The move follows increased requests for council waste crews to lift illegal waste, including ‘bagged and tagged’ rubbish that private contractors are meant to collect.

Fórsa official Tony Martin said the union had predicted that privatisation of the council’s refuse service, which happened in early 2012, would inevitably lead to an increase in fly-tipping.

“Outsourcing of waste has been a disaster from an environmental and service quality point of view, to say nothing of its impact on workers’ pay and conditions. Now council staff are lifting waste specifically designated for private operators – all at the taxpayers’ expense,” he said.