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

Deputy McAuliffe is right that we need to have positive measures. This is not just about enforcement, catching people and criminality. We have a number of different schemes to promote reduction in litter. There is an anti-dumping initiative, which provides €3 million to local authorities for clean-up operations for removing illegal waste when it has been dumped, for household bulky waste initiatives such as a so-called mattress amnesty and for getting rid of sofas, as well as awareness campaigns, preventative measures and so on.

However, awareness campaigns and these types of positive measures do not work on criminals who are making a living out of this. It does not matter how many times you show them an advertisement that tells them they should not dump; they will do it unless they are caught. There is room as well for evidence gathering and criminal sanction. People who give up their free time to clean up their local area and who go out and pick things up find it galling to then go out and see a sofa being dumped in a field.

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