Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was very happy to manage to secure additional funding in the budget for next year for anti-dumping initiatives, for exactly the reasons I was talking about in response to the previous question. Public information works for most people but not for that small cohort of society who are recidivist, shameful, furtive dumpers.

The annual anti-dumping initiative, ADI, was introduced in 2017 to encourage a collaborative approach between local authorities, communities and other State agencies in tackling the problem of illegal dumping. Delivery of the ADI is co-ordinated by three waste enforcement regional lead authorities and supported projects are selected based on their impact on four key criteria, namely, prevention, abatement, enforcement and awareness. Since its introduction, funding of more than €9 million has been provided by my Department under the initiative, which has supported the delivery of more than 1,000 projects in all 31 local authorities. Full details of funding, broken down by local authority and individual project, for each of the years 2017 to 2020 are available on gov.ie.

A further €3 million has been allocated to local authorities under the 2021 anti-dumping initiative. Payments are being processed and details will be made available on gov.iewhen the process is complete. Allocations under the initiative for 2022 have yet to be finalised, but it is likely a similar sum will be made available to local authorities under the initiative.

The Department also continues to invest significantly in the local authority waste enforcement network under the local authority waste enforcement measures grant scheme. More than €7.7 million has been provided to local authorities under the scheme in 2021 to support the recruitment and retention of more than 150 local authority waste enforcement staff throughout the country.

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