Niamh Smyth
Ceist:139. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the status of the progress his Department is making to tackle littering and fly-tipping. [28415/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 2 June 2022
Ceisteanna (139)
Freagraí scríofa
My Department provides support to local authority efforts to tackle litter on a number of fronts. A once off allocation of €5m was provided in 2021 to assist local authorities with the provision and upgrade of their litter infrastructure. A further €750,000 was provided under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme, which will again be supported in 2022. Funding is also provided in support of a number of important anti-litter initiatives such as National Spring Clean, Picker Pals, the PURE Project and Irish Business against Litter.
The Anti-Dumping Initiative (ADI) was introduced in 2017 to encourage a collaborative approach between local authorities, communities, and other State Agencies to tackling the problem of illegal dumping. Funding of over €12m has been provided by my Department under the Initiative, which has supported the delivery of over 1,250 projects nationwide. Details of funding, broken down by local authority and individual project, for each of the years 2017-2021 are available on the gov.ie website at the following link - https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/e27ac-anti-dumping-initiative/
A further €3m has been made available in support of the Initiative in 2022.
My Department also continues to invest significantly 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 across the State. Over €7.7m was provided to local authorities under the scheme in 2021, with a similar amount committed for 2022. The Circular Economy Bill, currently progressing through the Oireachtas, will advance a number of priority provisions which will provide valuable support in this area including providing for the GDPR-compliant use of a range of technologies, such as CCTV for both waste and litter enforcement purposes.