Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, is out of the country on official business, and I am afraid the answer is rather general and not related to the specific issues the Deputy raised.

Ensuring the provision of waste facilities in line with the relevant waste management plan is primarily a matter for the local authority in question, and the Minister has consistently emphasised the importance of the local authority taking responsibility in the area. The Department operates a capital grants scheme for recycling and recovery facilities, under which nine green waste facilities have been grant-aided, and more are under consideration. However, the scheme is not sufficient to assist in the provision of all the infrastructure desirable; nor does its existence dilute the obligation on local authorities to provide for such infrastructure.

The obligation on local authorities to provide for facilities is, however, regarding household waste rather than waste arising in the course of commercial activities. Recycling, recovery or disposal of commercially arising waste is specifically the responsibility of the producer, and the local authorities are not obliged to provide facilities to, or to accept material from, the producer. Consistently landfilling commercial green waste is not viable owing to our commitment to reduce the proportion of biodegradable waste going to landfill. Against that backdrop, it seems there is a very obvious commercial opportunity regarding collection, shredding or compaction and composting of such green waste.

I know there are particular problems in Dublin, as the Deputy has said, regarding the closure of St. Anne's Park, which, to my limited knowledge, might be partly owing to the fact that it started taking in too much commercial waste. There did not seem to be objections from residents when it catered more for——

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