Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 January 2005
1331 Mr. O’Connor asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will make additional resources available to South Dublin County Council to allow the council tackle the huge problem of litter in communities; if his attention has been drawn to the importance of this issue in Brittas, Firhouse, Greenhills, Templeogue, Tallaght and other parts of Dublin south west; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1129/05]
View answerEach local authority determines its level of expenditure on individual local services, including its anti-litter operations, as part of its annual estimates process. Such expenditure is funded from a variety of sources, including the local government fund, rates, fees and charges. In addition, since 1997 my Department has allocated a total of more than €4.35 million in grants to local authorities for public education and awareness initiatives against litter. South Dublin County Council received €110,000 in grant aid during this period. I envisage making further allocations of this kind to local authorities in 2005.
My Department also provides financial support for two national anti-litter initiatives, that is, the An Taisce led project, "National Spring Clean", and the Irish business against litter — IBAL — national litter league, and has developed the national litter pollution monitoring system currently being implemented by local authorities. Those initiatives are aimed at raising public participation in local awareness and clean-up actions and encouraging more rigorous and targeted action by local authorities to tackle litter pollution in their functional areas.
Primary responsibility for developing and implementing responses to the litter problem rests appropriately with local authorities. In all the circumstances, it is not proposed to earmark additional sources of funding to local authorities for litter prevention.
