I thought I saw a memo from the Ceann Comhairle stating the senior Minister is meant to notify the House if not available.
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
Ukraine War
We have a Minister of State.
That is not what the Standing Order states. It states the senior Minister should come to the House to reply to the question. This question is for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Unfortunately, we have what we have.
I have the answer. Tá an freagra agam.
The Minister of State has made himself available and is prepared to reply. Deputy Ó Cuív has four minutes and is using them.
The Chair should report to the Ceann Comhairle that there has once again been a flagrant disregard for the Standing Order on Topical Issue matters.
I will ensure that is conveyed.
Under the Standing Order, I should have been given the option of either proceeding or waiting until the Minister was available. That is the Standing Order. I do not make the Standing Orders; the House makes them.
We will convey that to the Minister. The Ceann Comhairle will be made aware of that as well. The Deputy has four minutes, which is gone.
That is a matter of procedure, not a matter of-----
Anyway, proceed.
It is a year since the Ukraine war started and a flood of refugees started coming into the country. The past year has seen a very significant increase in the number of asylum seekers coming here. I understand in excess of 85,000 people have come here from Ukraine and other countries seeking refuge. I commend the Government, Department and particularly the people on their response to this influx and the way accommodation has been provided throughout the State. However, I have noticed that in this country we often get the big things or polices right, as has been the case, but fail abysmally on the more detailed delivery. When people take on a burden, it is important the State pays them on time if it says it is going to pay them. The reality is the Department has failed to pay people on time and there are people who have been waiting months, perhaps with huge overheads and investment costs. This does not inspire confidence among bankers. Many of those affected depend on loans and funders. What is happening has great potential to put contractors off remaining in the system this spring and make them revert to offering holiday accommodation. This trend will be particularly acute in areas that are holiday destinations.
A very important role of the Government is always to pay people on time. Prompt payment should be adhered to absolutely. If the Department does not have the capacity to make the payments, it should farm out responsibility to those who do.
My suggestion is that it asks Pobal, an organisation that is totally controlled by the State, to make these payments because Pobal was already successfully given this devolved function by two Departments in respect of the rural social scheme and Tús scheme with regard to paying the wages. It was paying a large number of wages, which was quite complex, but it did so on time and all the time. The great thing about it was that this function was delivered from Pobal's office in Clifden in County Galway, which created some very considerable and welcome employment in that neck of the woods.
I suggest that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth ensures that all centres housing refugees be paid up to date, without delay and as soon as possible. In the meantime, a clear outline of the timeline of outstanding payments should be given to each provider. They seem not to be able to get that basic information. The Department should expedite the development of a system to ensure that after that, all payments are made monthly, as they should be. Finally, the possibility of devolving this role to Pobal's office in Clifden should be pursued immediately. One should always go to people who have a proven track record that they can do the job.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine one year ago, and the invoking of the temporary protection directive by the European Union shortly afterwards, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has worked intensively as part of the cross-Government response to the Ukraine crisis.
The operational challenges brought about by responding to the conflict are significant. Our country has never experienced an influx of displaced persons like the one we have seen over the past 12 months. As the Deputy said, numbers seeking international protection have also increased, adding to accommodation capacity issues.
Overseeing provision of accommodation on this scale during this timeframe for all those who require it remains immensely challenging. Due to the urgent need to source accommodation, the Department has contracted in excess of 43,000 beds to accommodate beneficiaries of temporary protection with more than 720 providers, including hotels, guest houses, bed and breakfast accommodations, hostels, commercial self-catering accommodation, scout halls, religious congregations and certain other repurposed settings.
The unprecedented demand for accommodation and, by association, the level of transactions involved, is significant. With more than 750 contractors paid monthly, the payments process is an operation of considerable scale. The Department is obliged to ensure that invoices are correct and while some are straightforward, many require queries to the provider and additional documentation to confirm what is owed. I am not sure if the suggestion made by the Deputy will help to speed things up in any way given the scale of the challenge we have with this.
To provide some context of the scale of the Department’s payment activity, from the outset of the war to date, the Department has made in excess of 3,900 payments to a value of more than €600 million. The Department spent almost €520 million on Ukraine accommodation and related costs in 2022 alone. Of this, almost €200 million was paid out within November and December 2022, including close to 400 transactions in November to the value of €55 million and a further 475 transactions in December to the value of €143 million, which included a number of significant high-value payments. This points to the substantial ramping up of payments in recent months. In 2023 to date, 615 payments have been made to the value of €96 million.
I acknowledge that due to the quantum involved, some providers are experiencing delays in receiving payment. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is mindful of the impact and has been proactive in implementing a number of measures to substantially reduce the backlog. As was done for the backlog clearance in December, the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, has doubled the resources dedicated to this task since the start of the year. That figure is currently at 20 and increasing. This has begun to make a difference.
Furthermore, the Department has just completed a business optimisation process to enable outsourcing options to be pursued and ensure internal processes are as efficient as they can be, including for all process automation. The Department has already begun outsourcing certain aspects of invoicing work to Pobal agency staff both to work directly on clearing the backlog and to engage with providers with invoicing issues. Officials within the Department have also investigated the feasibility of using other shared services options, including the team who process the housing assistance payments, HAP, for local authorities and other commercial providers, to consider further outsourcing and enable an enduring model, which will ensure that despite the scale, payments can be made on time. The Department will continue to dedicate internal resources in the short term to clear the backlog and will pause or delay work in other areas within the Department, where necessary.
Obviously, the money is big; one would not expect otherwise. The number of providers is relatively small, however. There are 720 providers. I do not accept the argument that there were suddenly queries. I have raised questions on behalf of a number of providers and every time I raise a question, people come back and say they will be paid shortly. They never come back and say they are sorry, they raised queries and did not get replies or they have outstanding issues that they have to get clarified. They have not said that.
I have also received many complaints from providers saying they cannot get hard information as to when they will get paid. I find it hard to believe that people have not been paid for October and November of last year, for example, that there are outstanding queries, that those queries are not being answered and that people are ringing Deputies to find out where their payments are. As I said, the lie to that is the fact that in responses from the Department to parliamentary questions on this issue, people inevitably never raise that issue and just cite the amount of work.
I have a clear view that everybody is entitled to payment and it is up to the State to find a way to make that payment. If the Department did not have the resources, it should have outsourced it right from the beginning to relevant State agencies. I am not trying to give it to the private sector. We have plenty of bodies within the State that are used to making large numbers of payments efficiently, on time and all the time. Therefore, I hope the Minister of State will suggest to the senior Minister that he talk to Pobal. As I said, there is a particularly suitable office in Clifden. We need the jobs, the Government needs the work done and Pobal always delivers on time and all the time.
I would again stress the importance of due diligence. That is why there are queries at times. As I said, the Minister has engaged with Pobal and the team that processes HAP. With regard to the International Protection Accommodation Service, IPAS, contracts are agreed on capacity for an IPAS centre, as specified in the individual contract. Payments under the agreed contracts, inclusive of VAT, will be made every four weeks, as specified, and the Deputy mentioned that. This amounts to an all-inclusive sum in respect of provision of accommodation and all the other services outlined in the agreement. IPAS can confirm that all payments are made four weeks in advance. As of 28 February, there are currently no outstanding payments to IPAS accommodation providers.
The scale of the response and the challenges it presents extend not only to the initial provision of accommodation but also supporting ancillary systems. I have notes on the parliamentary questions and representations the Deputy made. I wish to reiterate that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is conscious of the need to expedite payments. I understand the distress and frustration that payment delays can cause providers and regret that delays remain an issue despite the Department's best efforts.
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth continues to pursue improvements. I can assure the House that the Department is according this issue the very highest priority. The Department is committed to maintaining a practice of more timely payments to ensure that all those who assist those fleeing this unjust war are paid for their services.
The Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, wishes to acknowledge and thank the staff in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth who are involved in processing invoices. As has been mentioned, the scale is, and continues to be, significant. Many people have worked extended nights and over weekends to assist in reducing the backlog. I thank them for their professionalism, dedication and commitment to helping to process as many payments as possible.
With the agreement of Deputy Stanton, we will move on to the third Topical Issue matter from Deputy O'Reilly on the need for improved bus services in Fingal.
Public Transport
I agree with Teachta Ó Cuív. I am always conscious when we raise this, and I do not mean this in a disrespectful way to the person who has turned up, that there is a rule. It is disrespectful to expect us to come in when the relevant line Minister does not. That is not directed to the Minister of State. I am very conscious that he is here and I do not mean that in a disrespectful way to him. With the assistance of the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, perhaps the Ceann Comhairle might be able to resolve this issue.
I wish to raise with the Minister of State a number of issues regarding the bus services in my constituency of Dublin Fingal. Recently, across all transport providers, including Bus Éireann, Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland, there have been a large number of issues regarding the level of service provided to the public.
For the information of the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, my constituency is a commuter constituency. We are actually very significantly under-employed in the place I am lucky to represent and to live. The vast majority of people who work or go to college leave my constituency to do so. They are heavily dependent on public transport. We like to avoid the car park that is the M1 in the morning if we can. Some of us can use the train but even for those who are lucky enough to be near a train station, many people still have to use the bus to be able to get into work and go to college. We have had a litany of buses cancelled at the last minute. They are disappearing off the real-time information or they are arriving late. These are only just some of the problems. I have been in constant contact with the Department and with the National Transport Authority about the necessity for services to dramatically improve for my constituents. The bus services across north county Dublin, and in particular routes No. 101, 102, 33A, and the H2, among others, are essential parts of our community and essential for our community to function. This essential service is being undermined when the buses do not show up or arrive late. The people of Fingal have a right to get to work. They have a right to get to school on time and to go about their daily business safe in the knowledge that their bus is not going to be cancelled at the last minute or disappear off the real-time information or, as was the case when I got the bus myself recently, just not turn up or arrive late as it does many times.
This week a woman contacted me about the No. 101 bus service. She waited for the 5.55 p.m. bus from Busáras but it did not appear for one hour. This left her getting the bus at 6.55 p.m., and that is a very regular occurrence for this lady. It is not acceptable. Essentially, it means that people are at panic stations all the time. They are missing meetings, or perhaps there is something that a person wants to go to in his or her own community. We are people who are active in our communities and we want other people to be active in their community, but people cannot do that if they cannot rely on the bus. Likewise, it presents a problem if a person is turning up late for childcare. If you have ever had to do it, it is absolutely mortifying. If you do it continually you send a very poor message to the people you are paying to work hard to look after your kids about where your priorities are. It is not the person's fault, they turn up, they have their money or tickets and they are ready to get on the bus but it does not turn up.
With regard to the No. 33 bus route, and specifically the No. 33A part of that, this service as provided by Go-Ahead Ireland is one of the worst I have seen. There are countless phantom buses, late buses, and non-arrivals. It has happened to me on many occasions. The No. 102 route from Dublin Airport to Sutton is used by many school students. Parents and students have told me the bus is often late or sometimes just does not show up. The students will get into trouble at school for coming in late. They will spend the day in a deficit because they have not been able to get in on time. When the bus does not show or it is late in the evening they are left waiting in the wind, the cold and the rain, or whatever the weather happens to be.
I thank the Deputy. I have noted the comments the Deputy made, as well as those made by Deputy Ó Cuív. The senior Ministers are not always available, but I have noted and will relay the comments back.
I want to explain at the outset that the Minister for Transport has responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport but is not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The National Transport Authority, NTA, has statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally. The NTA works with the public transport operators, who deliver the services and who have responsibility for day-to-day operational matters. That said, I reassure the Deputy that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a critical role in the delivery of this goal.
To support this objective, in budget 2023, the Department of Transport secured €563 million of funding for public service obligation, PSO, and Transport for Ireland, TFI, Local Link services, up from €538 million in 2022. The Department of Transport’s sustainable mobility policy, launched last year, recognises that tailored transport solutions are needed for urban and rural areas, including in the Fingal area.
The Minister for Transport is very conscious of the need to connect our people and places across Ireland by improving public transport services. To this end, the Government's vision for both rural and urban Ireland is ambitious. Moreover, a cost-efficient public transport sector, including affordable and accessible public transport services, is crucial in effecting a modal shift from private to public transport. The figures in that regard are good.
I will now turn specifically to the Fingal area. The Deputy is no doubt familiar that Fingal spans the area of both the BusConnects Dublin network redesign and the services proposed under the Connecting Ireland rural mobility plan. The NTA has advised the Department of Transport that there is work under way in providing additional services in the Balbriggan, Stamullen, Ballyboughal and Swords corridor, which will be developed later this year for future implementation. Additionally, the BusConnects network redesign will bring significantly enhanced services to parts of Fingal, including Blanchardstown, Swords, and the east coast corridor. TFI Local Link Louth-Meath-Fingal has also confirmed that it is working with the NTA designing new bus routes under Connecting Ireland. With more services coming in 2023 and beyond, these new routes will be transformative and will have a fundamental impact on the health and well-being of communities in the area.
In the more urban parts of Fingal, BusConnects Dublin will provide more sustainable, accessible, and reliable transport options, resulting in higher quality service. By revitalising public transport and providing safe active travel routes, the project represents a necessary modal shift away from private transport. To date, the NTA has submitted planning applications to An Bord Pleanála in respect of six of the core bus corridor schemes, including the Ballymun-Finglas to city centre scheme, and expects to submit applications for all remaining schemes by the end of the second quarter of 2023.
It must be noted that industry-wide challenges with driver recruitment continue to pose a challenge. This is being closely monitored between the NTA and the transport operators and the launch dates continue to be kept under review to ensure that the transport operators are operationally ready to introduce the new services.
I am aware the Deputy is very passionate about and interested in accessible public transport as an issue in representing her community. The Department of Transport and its agencies are progressively making public transport more accessible for people who are disabled, including in rural areas, by ensuring that new infrastructure and services are accessible from the start, and also by retrofitting older infrastructure and facilities. It goes without saying that the provision of accessible, integrated and sustainable transport is critical for all members of society, and especially those in vulnerable situations, including people with disabilities and older people.
Again, I note the points made by the Deputy about the routes Nos. 101 and 33A.
Before I respond, I must acknowledge and thank Deputy Stanton for swapping his slot with me.
In his contribution, the Minister of State has said that the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options and that public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal. I am not being smart, but I would genuinely like the Minister of State to go down and stand at a bus stop in my constituency and say that to people as the buses disappear off the real-time information.
I understand that the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is not responsible for drafting the timetables and, notwithstanding his experience driving the trucks today, neither do we expect him to jump in and drive the buses. I completely understand the Minister's role in this, but the Government is funding a service that is not working, in a constituency where we are heavily reliant on public transport. I put it to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, that we do all that we can in here to encourage people to get out of their cars and get onto public transport. It is very hard to do that when one cannot be sure the bus is going to arrive.
The Minister of State referred to accessibility. As it happens, in my constituency some of the most efficient services that are provided are not accessible. They are provided by private bus providers, and some of the more reliable routes are not accessible. If a person living in my constituency has a disability then he or she is doubly disadvantaged. There is an issue if the lifts do not work at the train station. A person must phone in advance to say that he or she is going to need the train. On top of that, a good portion of the transport that is available is not accessible to that person. We want people to have an alternative. People cannot afford to fill the tank of the car, as the Minister of State will be aware, but sin scéal eile. We do want people to be able to use the buses. I challenge the Minister of State to go to any bus stop in my constituency and try to stand up his statement. That is not how the people I represent feel.
I note the points made by the Deputy, particularly on accessibility and lifts. It is critically important that these issues are addressed. It is also critically important that everybody has a right to public transport and a right to access employment services, training and childcare services. All of those are essential and key components of good functioning urban and rural areas. This is what the Government is setting out to achieve.
There has been the 20% reduction in fees and additional measures such as the 50% reduction in fares for 16 to 23-year-olds.
All of these have resulted in a significant uptake in public transport. It is fantastic. The uptake in Ireland post pandemic has been greater than that in many other European countries, and we should be grateful for that.
As regards BusConnects: the G spine, which serves areas such as Ballyfermot, Liffey Valley, Clondalkin and Islandbridge, was launched in October 2022; the H spine, running from Howth to Malahide, was launched in June 2021; and the C Spine, running from Maynooth through Celbridge, Leixlip and Lucan and on through the city to Ringsend and Sandymount, was launched in November 2021. A significant amount of work is ongoing but I note the serious points raised by the Deputy with regard to specific routes. It is disappointing that people are waiting at bus stops for buses that do not show up. That throws their plans for the day into disarray. It is critically important we at Government level are putting the investment in, but it is also critical that bus service providers work with us to ensure those services are provided, notwithstanding the challenges relating to recruitment, employment and so on, as well as the accessibility issues raised by the Deputy.
Litter Pollution
I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this issue and the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for being here to take it. I am sure I am speaking to the converted as far as he is concerned when I state we live in a beautiful country. It is fabulous. There are lovely hedgerows, fields, mountains, lakes, rivers and coastlines throughout the country, but the amount of litter and fly-tipping is increasing all the time. It is particularly evident on rural roads. Now that the vegetation has died back, all the cans, bottles, paper, plastic and other litter that has been dumped there can be seen. It is a blight on the landscape. It is a national shame.
I am calling for a national campaign to combat this problem. It should not be a once-off spring clean but rather a year-round campaign. I would like the Minister of State himself to head and personify it. It needs a champion. Maybe he will take that on, become known as the Minister against litter and clean up the country once and for all.
I pay tribute to those involved in Tidy Towns, who do amazing work, as well as Irish Business Against Litter, which was formed by Tom Cavanagh many years ago and does amazing work. I pay tribute to the Clean Coasts programme and, in my area in particular, Clean Coasts Ballynamona, which is led by Proinsias Ó Tuama, a teacher at St. Colman's Community College. It is an award-winning group that picks up litter along the coastline.
I am very concerned about remote areas such as rural roads and wild places that are being despoiled and ruined by people throwing away bags of litter. The litter is then attacked by crows and vermin and scattered. We need to find, name and shame those responsible, but we also need to have pride in our area and our country. We need to call on nationalism here and stop this scourge once and for all. Everything that can be done must be done. We must be unrelenting. People who come to Ireland and see the extent of this problem cannot believe it is so bad in some areas. I was going home on a Sunday recently and noticed that a person had just dumped two black bags of rubbish. The crows were beginning to open the bags and tear the rubbish apart. That is happening ever more often. Far more needs to be done.
I acknowledge that money is being allocated to local authorities and spent but each local authority should have a champion in respect of this issue. That person's one and only job should be to combat litter and to provide education, information and awareness-raising programmes to make people ashamed of litter and bring their litter home with them rather than dumping it out a car window. Walking along a country road, you can tell where the chip bag was emptied because you can see where all the litter has been thrown in particular areas. There are bottles, cans and plastic, which lasts almost forever. It impacts on wildlife - plants and animals and the visual beauty that should be there.
We need to get serious about this. We need somebody to champion it and be unrelenting on it. It should not just be about having a spring clean and then forgetting about it for the rest of the year. We need to do everything we can. I refer to recycling programmes. There was a talk earlier about coffee cups and reducing their use and so on. We are not doing it quickly enough, however. This issue should be highlighted on television screens, in newspapers, schools and cinemas and at community groups. There could be signs for car bumpers, and so on, to raise awareness. The Minister should have a committee of creative people working with him to prevent littering. In addition, there is a need for more incentives to help people to clean up their areas.
I thank the Deputy for his impassioned plea on this issue. It is a matter that exercises us all. In terms of champions, it is our collective responsibility here to lead. Tomorrow, I will be notifying the public of the ending of the hedgerow cutting season and of burning from 1 March. There are fires ablaze throughout the country at the moment. The Deputy rightly mentioned the impact on nature and water, including water quality. The nature of what is being dumped these days is shocking, including toxic materials. We have a real problem on our hands and it is impacting on our image abroad but, more importantly, on our collective well-being and sense of collective responsibility.
In accordance with the provisions of the Waste Management Act 1996, each local authority is responsible for the supervision and enforcement of the relevant provisions of that Act and of the Litter Pollution Act and the recovery and disposal of waste within its functional area. It is necessary to advise the House that under section 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ryan, is precluded from exercising any power or control in respect of the performance by a local authority, in particular circumstances, of a statutory function vested in it. Under the legislation, individual local authorities are responsible for dealing with cases involving the illegal disposal of waste in their functional areas, and it is matter for them to take the appropriate enforcement and clean-up actions.
Although the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to illegal waste activity lies with local authorities, the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications continues to provide extensive policy, financial and legislative support. For example, it provided €750,000 under the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness grant scheme for 2022, with a similar amount expected to be made available in 2023. Under this scheme, local authorities are responsible for selecting suitable projects and locations for funding and grant allocations. Funding is also provided annually in support of a number of important anti-litter initiatives such as the national spring clean, Picker Pals, the PURE Project and Irish Business against Litter. The Deputy mentioned Clean Coasts as well. I gave out awards to that body this year. It is involved in fantastic communities throughout the country. The recently enacted Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act advances several legislative provisions that will further enhance efforts in this area, including providing for the GDPR-compliant use of a range of technologies such as CCTV for litter enforcement purposes and an increase in the level of on-the-spot fines for littering.
In addition, the Department provides significant support to the local authority sector in its efforts to tackle illegal dumping. Almost €15 million, including €2.8 million in 2022, has been provided to the sector under the anti-dumping initiative since it was first introduced in 2017 to encourage a collaborative approach between local authorities, community groups and other State agencies to tackle the problem. The Department also continues to invest heavily in the local authority waste enforcement network through the local authority waste enforcement measures grant scheme, with the intention of maintaining a visible presence of waste enforcement personnel on the ground in the State. A total of €7.7 million was provided to local authorities under the scheme in 2022, while a further €1 million was provided to support the ongoing enhancement of the three waste enforcement regional lead authorities.
I thank the Minister of State for his response and the work he, the people in his Department and the local authorities are doing. We are lacking passion on this issue, however. He stated that under the Waste Management Act 1996, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, cannot interfere with local authorities and is precluded from exercising any power or control in respect of their performance. What if a local authority does not perform? What happens then? The Minister cannot do anything in that circumstance. We need to revisit and reconsider that Act.
The Minister of State outlined that €750,000 was provided under the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness grant scheme for 2022. We need to do more in that regard to raise awareness and provide education, including in schools, on this issue. As I stated, we need to name and shame people who are discovered littering.
We should make it a point of shame and on the other side of it, it should also be a point of pride for an area that is clean. As I said earlier, my real concern today is the rural country roads. On almost any road you travel on now at this time of the year when, as the Minister of State said, the hedges are cut back or should have been cut back to some extent anyway, you see it in all its glory. Plastic, bottles, cans, nappies, papers and black bags are dumped everywhere. The campaign the Minister of State has described is evidently not working. We need to do more. I call on the Minister of State, his Department and the local authorities to start taking this very seriously. This issue should be tackled on a daily basis. It is a national blight and it is polluting our rivers, seas, streams and land. It is unsightly, toxic and dangerous and it needs to be stopped. I do not think we are taking it seriously enough. A national awareness campaign through television, cinema, newspapers and social media should be invoked here at the very least. It should be unrelenting, because we are losing. I am sure colleagues here will agree with me that we find it on almost every road we travel now. I know that Tidy Towns and Irish Business Against Litter, IBAL, are doing great work in and around the towns but if you go further out into the country that is where you see it, in all its awful glory. I urge the Minister of State to get stuck into this.
Deputy Gould also agrees with the Deputy and strongly supports him.
I want to raise a couple of points in summary. I agree with everything the Deputy has said. On education in schools, the schools are at the forefront of this consistently, through the green flags initiative both in primary and secondary schools. Children are educating their parents. Late last year I met the Children and Young People's Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. They are appalled by this and want action on it as well. It is critically important that we work collaboratively. We need more prosecutions through the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, which will deal with issues around compliance and GDPR in the use of a range of technologies, including CCTV and other mobile recording devices, to determine environmental pollution. I think this is going to be important. In the past, it was very difficult to secure prosecutions. Once these regulations are approved, local authorities will be enabled to put in place both litter and waste enforcement measures involving GDPR-compliant use of technologies such as CCTV. We need a carrot-and-stick approach. That is really important.
Local authorities are highly active right across the country. The local government audit service ensures that there is a benchmarking on how they perform their duties in this area. I agree with the Deputy on his point about campaigns. We need to use all media available to us, be it social media, television, radio, newspapers and other publications, to keep the public information and awareness side of it going. To be brutally honest, the people who carry out these activities, whether it is fly-tipping or throwing rubbish out of windows of cars, have no responsibility and have no pride in our State or our country. It is grossly irresponsible. Apart from all of the issues that the Deputy has mentioned in the impact on our tourism industry, the impact on water, nature and all of that is of great significance. We need to consistently double down on compliance and enforcement and awareness, as the Deputy has quite rightly pointed out as well.
Before adjourning, I note the points raised by other speakers on the manner in which the Topical Issue matters are being delegated. I realise that there is great difficulty in making time for everything but this is one of the things we have to make time for. We thank the Minister of State for making himself available but it should be noted that the responsible Ministers are expected to be in the House if they can. Only in special circumstances should they be absent. The Ceann Comhairle is aware of this and the various Departments and Ministers also will be made aware of it tomorrow morning.
Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 10.24 p.m. go dtí 9.12 a.m., Dé Céadaoin, an 1 Márta 2023.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.24 p.m. until 9.12 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 March 2023.