Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I also thank him for referencing the Bill I brought forward on behalf of the Labour Party. Indeed, my colleague, Senator Malcolm Byrne, brought forward a similar Bill on behalf on Fianna Fáil. It is very important that those two Bills were brought forward because the problem has not gone away, unfortunately. We are still getting calls. This morning, I got two telephone calls from people who were reporting illegal dumping in south Kildare and that problem continues day in, day out.

It is also opportune to thank, as other colleagues have done, the Tidy Towns groups. We need to go out and use every opportunity to thank them for the enormous work they do. We need to support them in every way. The fund the Minister of State will create through this Bill should be targeted towards those volunteers who go out of their way each week - each day, in some cases - to make sure their local areas are clean and cleaned up.

My colleague, Senator Moynihan, raised the issue, which was also raised by Senator Malcolm Byrne, regarding the €90 million. As I said before, the Minister of State can just imagine what we can do with that type of money if it was actually saved and put back into local authorities. We, as public representatives, are always asked about playgrounds etc. and the sort of money we could save in relation to that €90 million should be put back into those sorts of facilities. Unfortunately, I recently learned of a clean-up that cost Kildare County Council in the region of €48,000 within the last two months. That is totally and utterly unacceptable for it to addand grow into that figure.

I also want to mention the local projects that are mentioned in the Bill. We need to support those local projects. I want to mention the green kilometre scheme. I am not sure whether the Minister of State is familiar with that but it is a magnificent local project in County Kildare where locals are encouraged to look after the 1 km outside their home.It has seen great take-up. The environmental officer in Kildare County Council, Dara Wyer, has long supported this project. It has seen great take-up in south Kildare and in north Kildare. As other colleagues have mentioned, a lot of people go out, day in and day out, to ensure that the 1 km is clean. That helps in the overall assistance to Tidy Towns and community groups. Something like that will inform the education other colleagues have spoken about as well, because that is the piece we need to get right. It is education through schools but also through community groups. We need to support community groups. My local community group has a yearly clean-up. This year we collected almost 1,000 bags and it is a similar amount every year. That is the sort of basis on which we need to educate and support communities. We welcome the Bill. I look forward to speaking more to the Minister of State about it as we work through the Bill.