It will cost in the region of €5,000 to clean up approximately 2,000 tyres that were dumped at the side of the main Dublin to Belfast road in Co Louth.
The tyres were left in a number of large piles on a lay-by near junction 20 on the northbound lane of the N1, the final junction before the border and clearly visible to road users.
Louth County Councillor Antóin Watters said there has been a "huge increase in dumping since Christmas", calling the disposal of the tyres "brazen".
He added: "These people don’t care about any restrictions or anything. They don’t care about any impact it has to the environment or breach of Covid regulations and in my eyes, it is a big slap in the face to everyone else trying hard to do everything right in these difficult times.
"I am calling on people to ensure that whenever they buy new tyres, they ensure they buy them from a reputable dealer who will recycle the (old) tyres properly and not see them end up alongside our country roads."
Louth County Council confirmed a litter warden had visited the scene on Wednesday morning to investigate the incident and to "search the area for evidence", adding no such evidence was found.
"The litter warden has estimated the extent of matter dumped to be in the region of 2000 tyres," a spokesperson said.
The Council is now coordinating with Gardaí on the matter and has appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Meanwhile, the PSNI confirmed they received a report of a trailer parked on Camlough Road in Newry on February 20th, saying "around 1000 used tyres on board had been stolen at some time in the two weeks before the time of report".
PSNI officer will liaise with Gardaí as part of their enquiries into this matter.
