Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

The Deputy obviously learned his lesson. There seem to be no great deterrents to dumping large amounts of litter.

Joined-up thinking is a very important concept. When I was proposing the tourism policy, I suggested there should be more interdepartmental and intradepartmental co-operation to address issues such as this. It is a matter of taking a very practical approach. Various Departments cannot pass the buck to others; there must be shared responsibility in the protection of the environment.

In addition to having responsibility for the arts, I have responsibility for culture and heritage issues. I will take these matters very seriously because we need some form of national landscape policy to allow us to treat our landscape with respect. I will follow up this issue very aggressively while I am Minister.

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