Vol. 497 No. 6
192 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the nature of the review of litter management policies he is conducting; if this review is delaying the implementation of individual plans, pending his Department's assessment; and if his review will result in any new resources being made available to local authorities to tackle this growing problem. [25923/98]
Last June, I announced a programme of measures to support local authority action against litter, details of those measures are set out in the reply to Questions Nos. 17 and 61 of 11 June 1998. Under the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, local authorities are required to adopt litter management plans for their areas. The adoption of such plans does not require ministerial approval. Accordingly, the question of delays in the implementation of individual plans due to any action by my Department does not arise.
On the question of resources, local authorities were recently notified of their allocations under the new local government fund which comes into operation on 1 January next. It is open to local authorities to use some of this funding to increase current expenditure next year to take a more pro-active approach to their functions under the Litter Pollution Act.
