Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This time last year, the Government announced a €5 million fund to deal with littering on beaches. Unfortunately, that barely scratched the surface of the littering scourge affecting beaches around Ireland. Littering is also not the only issue. A major issue is the lack of provision of toilet facilities at beaches. The Taoiseach is very familiar with the beaches of west Cork, such as Long Strand and Barleycove, which are some of the more popular beaches and do not have toilet facilities. Furthermore, there is going to be a chronic issue with parking facilities. The days are lengthening, the sun is shining and, thankfully, people are shortly going to be flocking to the beaches of west Cork. The provision of services is lacking, however, and I would love to see a larger fund being provided to tackle issues such as the lack of parking, littering and the provision of toilet facilities. By the way, the solution to the parking issue is not necessarily the provision of extra parking spaces. It could involve directing active travel funding towards greenways and pedestrian access to beaches.

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