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

I thank the Senator. The Department has allocated €3 million to local authorities as part of the anti-dumping initiative for 2024. Since 2017, €18 million has been provided to local authorities across the country to support more than 1,700 projects. Local authorities continue to work with the State agency to identify problems. That funding does not specifically relate to CCTV but rather to the anti-dumping initiative. I welcome the clarity the Department has provided in stating that the use of these technologies should be restricted to appropriate authorised local authorities because, as I understand it, that is where most of the logjam was. If tidy towns committees were granted access, everybody could see what their neighbours were up to. That is too broad a brush so the scheme had to be narrowed. The focus was then put back on local authorities. They were not enthusiastic about taking this on and wanted to leave it to local communities to look after their own areas but it is now their responsibility. Exclusive use of the technology must be maintained by the local authority and only appropriate authorised officials can have access. That helps to deal with the issue of people's rights under privacy laws and so on. Now that the matter is clarified, we can move on.