Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Environment Fund was established by the Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2001 and comprises revenue generated from levies that were introduced in respect of plastic bags, the levy for which is currently 22 cent, and waste sent to landfill sites, the levy for which is currently €75 per tonne. The Environment Fund is spent on activities and schemes to reduce waste and to increase environmental awareness. Income to the fund in 2016 was almost €57 million, but this is expected to reduce significantly over this year and next year due to landfill capacity constraints, the full operational opening of the thermal treatment plant in Poolbeg and the export of waste for treatment abroad. Expenditures from the Environment Fund allocations, totally €39.4 million, were approved by the then Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in January 2016. I recently approved allocations totalling €38.76 million from the Environment Fund for 2017. Some programmes formerly funded from the fund will be funded directly from the Exchequer in 2017. These include the full amount of €8.5 million of the Environmental Protection Agency's capital budget for research and development, €3 million for the international environment subscriptions and €1.6 million for waste policy initiatives.

To answer the Deputy's question, this fund is falling off. There are two reasons. One is that people use plastic bags less often and the second is that landfill capacity is less available now than it was a number of years ago. On the question about the profile of the fund over the last number of years, I do not have that to hand. The yield from the plastic bag levy is €9 million. The Environment Fund for 2015 was €46.09 million and it was €56.85 million for 2016. The projection for 2017 is €45.3 million. If the Deputy wants more historical figures we will have to get them for him.