John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply and welcome the initiatives to which he has referred. He specifically spoke about large-scale dumping. Perhaps in his further remarks he might indicate how many prosecutions actually went through the courts last year and were successful. With a lot of fly-tipping and the like taking place, local authorities will state securing the evidence to secure a successful prosecution is difficult. While there are initiatives, how effective have they been? Let us move away from large-scale dumping and look at the dumping of domestic refuse. Perhaps there should be initiatives to provide greater flexibility for local authorities to offer free services. I do not mean replacing the domestic charge; I refer to civic amenities available for one-off use. Local authorities used to collect large household items once a year, but that has largely been done away with in many parts of the country. Initiatives of that type need to be reintroduced.

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