Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I am taking this Commencement matter on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Eamon Ryan, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, also has a clear role in this area due to the data protection issue.

The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 advanced a number of priority provisions identified in the waste action plan, including the provision of GDPR-compliant use of technologies, such as CCTV. The Act facilitates the use of CCTV schemes, under either the Litter Pollution Act or the Waste Management Act, and the use of other mobile recording devices, such as drones and bodycams under the Waste Management Act only, as waste enforcement officers are often required to deal with significant criminality in the course of their duties. I again praise all of those working in the sector for their ongoing work in trying to tackle illegal waste.

In order to address data protection concerns, the Act set out a number of conditions to be complied with prior to the introduction and use of CCTV and other mobile recording devices. In particular, the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, was required to prepare codes of practice setting certain standards for the operation of CCTV schemes and the use of mobile recording devices by local authorities. The LGMA engaged extensively with the Data Protection Commission and other State agencies in drafting these codes of practice, which were submitted to the Minister for approval in December 2023. Following their approval by the Minister, the codes of practice were laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas by the LGMA, and an order commencing the relevant provisions of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act was signed on 15 February 2024. We all recognise this issue has been up and down through local authorities many times, primarily due to dealing with data protection issues. Local authorities are now in a position to begin the process of putting the required procedures in place to allow for the use of CCTV and other audiovisual recording, AVR, technologies in order to combat illegal dumping, subject to adherence with the relevant provisions in the codes of practice.

It is important to note that the use of these technologies will be restricted to appropriate authorised personnel within the local authorities and will require ongoing justification for installation and usage. In proposing to install and operate CCTV schemes, local authorities will be required to prepare a site management plan in respect of each individual scheme, setting out proposed arrangements for the monitoring, recording and disclosing of the images produced, and the preserving of these recordings, within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 2018. Data protection impact assessments must also be carried out in connection with the same legislation.

I emphasise that each local authority is responsible for the supervision and enforcement of the relevant provisions of the Waste Management Act in respect of the holding, recovery and disposal of waste within its functional area, and that the Minister and Department are precluded from exercising any power or control relating to the performance by a local authority 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. It is a matter for them to decide on the most appropriate enforcement and clean-up actions, including the usage of CCTV or other mobile recording devices.