DUBLIN CITY Council is to limit the amount of fat, oil and grease that food outlets are permitted to discharge into the public drainage system.
Licensing of restaurants, pubs, hotel and canteens will be mandatory, and the council says premises will be monitored to ensure compliance with the Water Pollution Act.
The council hopes to save hundreds of thousands of euro in maintenance and cleaning-up operations as a result of flooding caused by blocked pipes.
Briefings have been held with relevant representative associations such as the Vintners' Association of Ireland, Restaurants' Association of Ireland and the Irish Hotels' Federation.
Tom Brabazon, a Fianna Fáil councillor for Donaghmede, welcomed the move.
"The idea behind this is to prevent blockages in the public drainage and sewer systems caused by a build-up of fats, oils and grease [Fog] in the pipes, which congeals and accumulates in the pipes, leading ultimately to blockages.
"Rather than spending large amounts of monies on expensive maintenance programmes to deal with such blockages, it was decided to tackle the problem at source by using the Water Pollution Act to control the amount of Fog discharged into the drainage system by some food service establishments."