Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank Senator Wall for tabling this legislation, which is important. It is appropriate that the Seanad should deal with it because it deals directly with our local authorities and, therefore, in talking about this issue today, we are not only serving the local communities represented by members of our local authorities, but serving those elected members themselves. I welcome the discussion. This is very constructive legislation.

Before I continue to talk about the legislation, I commend my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, who has himself undertaken significant work on this issue. He has consulted widely with both elected local authority members and local authority officials. He has brought forward, and continues to bring forward, very constructive suggestions and proposals in this area. It is an issue on which we should work collectively across parties. We share a common interest and a common purpose. We all recognise the problem and the challenge. With our collective efforts, we can make progress in tackling this issue.

I also commend all the staff in local authorities around the country. Dublin City Council is my local authority. Central Dublin and the north inner city are, unfortunately, repeatedly featured as a hotspot for litter and illegal dumping in every report issued by Irish Business Against Litter, IBAL.With depressing regularity, the north inner city is listed as the number one hotspot. That is not a reflection on the efforts of the local authority staff, others working in the public domain, people working in waste management, voluntary groups or the residents and businesses who give of their time voluntarily after they have done a day's work to pick up rubbish, including illegally dumped garbage. I thank them for the efforts and energy they give to that work, but the situation is not good enough and I hope that we can make progress with the legislation.

Living in the city, CCTV is a live issue. People think of it not just in the context of prosecuting illegal dumping, but also prosecuting other types of anti-social behaviour, be it vandalism, graffiti, theft or more serious crimes. The Garda operates a significant CCTV network in the north inner city and the local authority could benefit from the enhanced technologies.

We need to consider the use of CCTV more deeply. Are we talking about recordings or live monitoring? These discussions need to be held and there must be a proper assessment of the resource requirement, for example, staff, equipment and investment. There is no point in us erecting a camera and its footage not being monitored or recorded and then acted on and enforced. It is difficult enough to catch someone, so it is very frustrating for city officials when the case progresses to court only to have it result in no effective enforcement. Local authorities chair joint policing committees, which act in a strategic way to address safety issues and matters of public concern. Is there any scope for the Minister of State to engage with local authorities in that capacity and have them engage with the Judiciary at a strategic level around prosecutions and court fines in respect of these matters? From a Dublin City Council perspective, it is a major frustration to go to so much effort, detect the dumping and bring someone to court only to have the case amount to no improvement.

Senator Byrne will speak to the technicalities of the Bill and the data protection issues, so I will leave those to him.

In terms of education and awareness, signs on lamp posts tell people to pick up their dogs' poo. The dogs do not read and their owners clearly do not give a you know what about what is being left on the ground. I did not say the word but the Cathaoirleach knows what I am thinking. We need to accept that piling money into awareness, education and signs is not working. It is costing millions of euro, and that is only the amount of money we capture. There is much more. If Dublin City Council spends €1 million on illegal dumping, it does not include the costs of reinstatement, repairs or dealing with vandalism and destruction of property. Senator Wall asked how we would spend that money in our communities. Would it be invested in sports or recreational facilities or culture? Will the Minister of State consider this matter seriously and take up my suggestion?