Vol. 538 No. 3
258 Mr. Stanton asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the policy directions, guidelines, criteria and regulations issued to local authorities under the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, currently in force and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17747/01]
The Litter Pollution Act, 1997, came into operation on 1 July 1997. Guidelines to assist local authorities with implementation of the Act issued to them in June 1997 and copies of the guidelines are available in the Oireachtas Library.
In addition, two sets of regulations have been made under the 1997 Act and circulated to local authorities: the Litter Pollution Regulations, 1997, which came into effect on the same date as the Act, prescribed the litter offences to which the on-the-spot fine applies and the format of the fine notice for such offences, for the purposes of section 28 of the Act; and the Litter Pollution Regulations, 1999, increased the on-the-spot fine amount to £50 with effect from 3 January 2000 made minor amendments to the format of the fine notice and revoked the earlier regulations.
My Department maintains regular contact with local authorities on the implementation of their anti-litter programmes generally.
