Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2019
510. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the budget spent on cleaning up illegal dumping by each local authority area in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41717/19]
View answerThe total costs of illegal dumping by local authority area are not collated by my Department, as they include local authority enforcement, disposal and legal costs and also involve costs for other State agencies such as An Garda Síochána.
However, my Department encourages a multifaceted approach to tackling the problem, incorporating enforcement, public awareness and education and has introduced a range of measures to target illegal dumping and strengthen waste enforcement generally. These include:
- The provision of an annual waste enforcement grant of €7.4 million to support the recruitment and retention of 150 local authority waste enforcement personnel across the country;
- The establishment of Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities to support and co-ordinate local authority action at a cost of €1 million per annum;
- The establishment of a National Waste Enforcement Steering Committee, which facilitates the deployment of co-ordinated multi agency responses to illegal waste activity across the regions.
In addition, my Department has developed the Anti-Dumping Initiative to encourage local authorities to work in partnership with community organisations in order to identify high-risk or problem areas, develop appropriate enforcement responses and carry out necessary clean-up operations. Since 2017, funding of €3.3 million has been made available which has supported more than 400 projects across all 31 local authority areas, remediating blackspots, while equipping local authority waste enforcement officers with the latest technologies available to tackle this problem.
I allocated a further €3 million for the 2019 Anti-Dumping Initiative, an increase of 50% on last year, in order to continue to support communities around the country in their efforts. This funding is supporting over 280 projects, many of an innovative nature. Funds will be distributed to local authorities shortly and details of this year's allocations and the projects funded during 2017 and 2018 can be accessed on my Department's website at: https://www.dccae.gov.ie/en-ie/environment/topics/waste/enforcement/anti-dumping-initiative/Pages/AntiDumpingInitiative.aspx
