Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise a couple of points in summary. I agree with everything the Deputy has said. In relation to education in schools, the schools are at the forefront of this consistently, through the green flags initiative both in primary and secondary schools. Children are educating their parents. Late last year I met the Children and Young People's Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. They are appalled by this and want action on it as well. It is critically important that we work collaboratively. We need more prosecutions through the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, which will deal with issues around compliance and GDPR in the use of a range of technologies, including CCTV and other mobile recording devices, to determine environmental pollution. I think this is going to be important. In the past, it was very difficult to secure prosecutions. Once these regulations are approved, local authorities will be enabled to put in place both litter and waste enforcement measures involving GDPR-compliant use of technologies such as CCTV. We need a carrot-and-stick approach. That is really important.

Local authorities are highly active right across the country. The local government audit service ensures that there is a benchmarking how they perform their duties in this area. I agree with the Deputy on his point about campaigns. We need to use all media available to us, be it social media, television, radio, newspapers and other publications, to keep the public information and awareness side of it going. To be brutally honest, the people who carry out these activities, whether it is fly-tipping or throwing rubbish out of windows of cars, have no responsibility and have no pride in our State or our country. It is grossly irresponsible. Apart from all of the issues that the Deputy has mentioned in terms of the impact on our tourism industry, the impact on water, nature and all of that is hugely significant. We need to consistently double down on compliance and enforcement and awareness, as the Deputy has quite rightly pointed out as well.

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