David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response and the work he, the people in his Department and the local authorities are doing. We are lacking passion on this issue, however. He stated that under the Waste Management Act 1996, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, cannot interfere with local authorities and is precluded from exercising any power or control in respect of their performance. What if a local authority does not perform? What happens then? The Minister cannot do anything in that circumstance. We need to revisit and reconsider that Act.

The Minister of State outlined that €750,000 was provided under the anti-litter and anti-graffiti awareness grant scheme for 2022. We need to do more in that regard to raise awareness and provide education, including in schools, on this issue. As I stated, we need to name and shame people who are discovered littering.

We should make it a point of shame and on the other side of it, it should a point of pride for an area that is clean. As I said earlier, my real concern today is the rural country roads. On almost any road you travel on now at this time of the year when, as the Minister of State said, the hedges are cut back or should have been cut back to some extent anyway, you see it in all its glory. Plastic, bottles, cans, nappies, papers and black bags are dumped everywhere. The campaign the Minister of State has described is evidently not working. We need to do more. I call on the Minister of State, his Department and the local authorities to start taking this very seriously. This issue should be tackled on a daily basis. It is a national blight and it is polluting our rivers, seas, streams and land. It is unsightly, toxic and dangerous and it needs to be stopped. I do not think we are taking it seriously enough. A national awareness campaign through television, cinema, newspapers and social media should be invoked here at the very least. It should be unrelenting, because we are losing. I am sure colleagues here will agree with me that we find it on almost every road we travel now. I know that Tidy Towns and Irish Business Against Litter, IBAL, are doing great work in and around the towns but if you go further out into the country that is where you see it, in all its awful glory. I urge the Minister of State to get stuck into this.

See this speech in context