Fingal County Council is revising its by-laws to facilitate the growing popularity of saunas

Fingal County Council plans to review its casual-trading by-laws to facilitate the growing popularity of mobile saunas.

Casual trading by-laws permit the sale of certain goods in certain public spaces like beaches, roads, and parks.

Yes, the councillors might recall they just revised and approved the casual trading bylaws in 2021, Deirdre Sinclair, a senior executive officer at the council, said at a committee meeting on Monday.  

“So, you're probably wondering why we're revisiting these bylaws so soon,” she told members of the Public Realm, Transportation/Mobility Management Strategic Policy Committee.

She said there’s two reasons: first, councillors have expressed interest in reviewing the current locations where casual trading is allowed in the county because of high demand; and second, the popularity of mobile saunas.

This summer, the council ran a pilot scheme allowing saunas at five sites, one each in Skerries, Balbriggan, Rush, Lucan, and two in Portmarnock.

“The Seasonal Trading Licence fee, per the Casual Trading Byelaws 2021 for peak season is €1,000,” an announcement for the programme said. 

Mary T. Daly, the council’s director of operations, said at the meeting Monday that the council launched this pilot because “there was demand, and they have worked out very well”. 

“And we've had no issues with them,” Daly said. “So they are proving quite popular.”

That pilot scheme is due to end at the end of September which is next week. The council will then review the feedback on it, and “it will inform us in our review of the by-laws going forward”, Sinclair said.

But the general plan now, Sinclair explained, is to ask councillors to amend the by-laws to allow seasonal licences for sauna operators. 

“Peak season for seasonal licences would be April to September. Off-peak would be October to March,” Sinclair said.

Sinclair said the proposed revised by-laws will go through a full public-consultation process, going before the council, and the public. 

The committee chair, Fianna Fáil Councillor Darragh Butler, backed the move, saying saunas are “incredibly popular, popping up at GAA clubs, and everywhere. Everywhere I go there seems to be one.” 

Butler pressed officials on whether licences could be extended year-round. Sinclair said that would depend on the results of the consultation process.

In the meantime, while the council works through the process of potentially amending the by-laws, it will extend the licences for the current operators, Daly said.

“We will extend them from October, because there's two with regards to the seasonal ones ... we will extend them for a further six months, once they apply and they have obeyed the conditions of the licence,” she said. 

She said the council would look at the charges for the licences, and might raise them.

The plan is for the council to put the proposed by-law changes out for public consultation in November and December, get a report back in February, and put them before councillors for approval at their April monthly meeting, Sinclair said.  

“I know it's a long and laborious process, but unfortunately, we're bound by the Casual Trading Act 1995 and the 2018 regulations,” she said.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.