DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL wants to ban off-leash dogs in the core of the capital’s second biggest park, citing concern that older people are staying away “due to a fear of an unwelcome encounter with free running dogs”.

However, the proposals for St Anne’s Park would see most of the 122-acre park made available for dogs to run off their leads at all times, in what has been described as a “quid pro quo” for the recent imposition of extensive restrictions on dogs on nearby Bull Island. The island is a nature reserve and hitherto a popular dog walking spot.

Under plans presented to local councillors on Monday afternoon, dogs will no longer be allowed off their leads in the area surrounding St Anne’s popular playground, cafe, rose garden and car park. At present, dogs are allowed off-lead before 11am and for an hour before closing time in St Anne’s, similar to the rules in operation in many of the city’s parks.

Away from the park’s core area, dogs will be allowed off-lead at all times. The “on lead” area will comprise 21.9 hectares and the “off lead” area 77.5 hectares.

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In a report presented to councillors on Monday afternoon, the parks department said: “The reasoning behind this change is that St Anne’s Park serves a huge and diverse local, and indeed more distant population, and has a significant cohort of visitors who are older, frailer, who may have visual or mobility difficulties and are perhaps just not comfortable or fearful around dogs as are many autistic children.

“The rationale that dogs can be exercised off leads before 11am but not afterwards is rather arbitrary and could be considered to be somewhat counterintuitive, as often more vulnerable and frail visitors to the park would prefer to visit the park earlier in the morning when the park is less busy.”

It added that the area of the park where dogs can be exercised off lead will be “very sizable” and the new arrangement “will suit a great many responsible dog owners that the previous timed arrangement did not fully accommodate”.

The report stated that while serious incidents are rare, “issues around dogs and vulnerable users are regularly raised with the parks service”.

“It is more than disappointing to think such users might avoid visiting the park due to a fear of an unwelcome encounter with free running dogs. It is felt that this is a reasonable change to the control of dogs in the park but will greatly enhance the park in terms of accessibility, inclusivity and being more age-friendly.”

St Anne’s is located between the north Dublin suburbs of Clontarf and Raheny and adjacent to the Bull Island nature reserve, where there has long been a problem with off-lead dogs disturbing birds and seals.

Earlier this year, the council implemented extensive restrictions on exercising dogs on the island, including a ban on off-lead dogs in the island’s dunes to protect ground nesting birds. Dogs can no longer be let off their lead anywhere on the island in the summer months.

Outside the summer bathing season, dogs will be permitted off their leash before 11am and outside 8pm on designated areas of the beach only.

The proposals for St Anne’s were broadly welcomed by councillors at the local authority’s North Central Area Committee meeting on Monday.

Fianna Fail councillor Deirdre Heney said it was important that a planned public consultation on the issue would also incorporate the views of people using Bull Island to walk their dogs. She noted that the plan to allow dogs off leads in large areas of St Anne’s was a “quid pro quo” for requiring them to be kept out of much of the nature reserve and part of a “combined approach” for the two sites.

Fergus O’Carroll, an official in the council’s parks department, emphasised that dogs running off-lead in St Anne’s would still need to be under their owners’ effective control.