A Co Louth town plans to introduce falcons in a bid to control the local seagull population.
The Deputy Mayor of Drogheda, Independent councillor Kevin Callan, told RTÉ's Drivetime that he had been in touch with local falconers, and that the bird of prey has helped elsewhere.
"The falcon will be brought in and effectively will be put up into flight over the town on a number of occasions and that in itself can be sufficient to reduce this," Mr Callan said.
"It's basically an indication to move from the territory."
He said that there had been issues with dumping and litter, but improvements had have been made.
"We're like any other town, if people drop food, these birds arrive in, but I was very concerned that we were going to see people trying to unofficially cull these birds," Mr Callan said.
"There was a lot of hype about this in the last few weeks so I was very keen that the council would make it clear that a cull would not be happening."
He added that after the nesting season, buildings can be netted-off to encourage gulls to move on.
Artificial falcons on buildings can also be a deterent, but the biggest issue is rubbish.
Mr Callan said the council has increased litter warden activity and has come up with a charter for businesses to keep 100 metres around their premises clear.
"This problem has already been addressed, but in the next 12 months we're going to move to new measures," he said.
