Deirdre Deverell is standing to the left with her black guide dog Bruno and beside her is Martina Gibney who is standing with her long cane, The Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste, and Madeleine McNamara. They are holding a blue sign which has white text which reads #ClearOurPaths.
452 fines were issued in County Tipperary last year for cars parked inappropriately according to data compiled by the NCBI. The data for county Tipperary also shows that zero fines were issued for dog fouling in 2022. Nationally just 82 dog fouling fines were handed out in 2022.
The NCBI is running a Clear Our Paths campaign this week and wants to focus on the difficulties caused by dog fouling and inappropriate parking for those blind or vision impaired.
18 councils from around the country handed out zero dog fouling fines over the course of last year. Kerry County Council had the highest number of fines with 27 and the council reported that there were two convictions related to those fines.
Parking inappropriately, especially on footpaths, causes a serious hazard for people who are blind or vision impaired. If a footpath is blocked, people with sight loss may be injured by walking into traffic to get around a vehicle, injured walking into the vehicle, or injured by stepping off kerbs in unfamiliar locations.
Dog fouling is the third most frequent unexpected obstacle encountered by vision impaired people – not only can dog fouling cause a slip hazard, but it can also be distressing for white cane users whose canes are often dirtied by faeces.
The NCBI did recognise that Tipperary County Council ran an anti-dog fouling stencil campaign in two municipal districts with messaging around cleaning up after a dog and about fines.
The NCBI is asking everyone in Ireland to put themselves in a blind or vision impaired person’s shoes when walking their pets, parking their car, putting out their bins or street signs and to act in a way that’s considerate to those people’s needs.
