Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2016
448. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the findings of any comparative analysis carried out by his Department, into the levels of fly-tipping and illegal dumping, reported by local authorities since the start of the economic downturn in 2008. [8396/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraEnforcement action against illegal waste activity is a matter for the local authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Environmental Enforcement. My Department provides the legislative framework under which both local authority and EPA enforcement action is initiated and also continues to provide significant financial support to a network of local authority waste enforcement officers, as well as to the Office of Environmental Enforcement.
I would draw the Deputy’s attention to a range of reports and data on waste enforcement that is publicly accessible. For example, the Local Government Management Agency’s (LGMA) series of annual reports on Service Indicators in Local Authorities provide data on a range of services including environmental complaints and enforcement and are available from the publications section of the LGMA’s website: www.lgma.ie.
For an overview of the national picture, the publications and downloads section of the EPA’s website: www.epa.ie contains the latest data in the form of Waste Factsheets and the National Waste Reports. In particular, the EPA published a report in 2014, entitled Focus on Environmental Enforcement in Ireland 2009 – 2012, which sets out the details of Ireland’s enforcement of environmental law, in the period 2009 to 2012, by local authorities and the EPA, and the role of the enforcement Network for Ireland’s Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (NIECE) in improving the effectiveness of enforcing environmental law. The report noted that almost 15,000 local authority inspections relating to waste facility permitted sites, waste collection permits, and vehicle checkpoints were completed by local authorities between 2009 and 2012. Excluding litter inspections, local authorities conducted in total over 105,000 waste inspections between 2009 and 2012.
