Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For the past two years, since I took up office, I have made funding available to every Tidy Towns group in the country. It is something at which I could and might look as no other group is more worthy of it, but it is all about the finances. I was able to allocate the money from savings in the Department. Perhaps I might look at having something on a more permanent basis. In the rules and regulations I used for this and the community enhancement scheme which probably did not suit everybody, I did not stop them from applying under both schemes because whatever funding they receive they spend very wisely. The criterion I used for Tidy Towns groups was they had to participate in the Tidy Towns competition. Last year marked its 60th anniversary, which is why I gave a further one-off grant. The groups do a superb job. They have great volunteers who do not receive the recognition they deserve for doing a tremendous job which is always done by the same three or four people in every community. As Deputy Calleary will tell us, there are voluntary groups in Castlebar, Westport and Ballina. Those involved are out working at 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. cleaning up. Perhaps we might support them more. The local authorities are receiving funding from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to catch people who are dumping, a problem which is getting bigger. It is very serious and one we need to tackle.

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