Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. It is disappointing not one of the relevant Ministers or Minister of State can take this issue, but I appreciate that the Minister of State is here. I raise the ongoing problem of illegal dumping and littering. The Minister of State will be familiar with it in areas of west Limerick. It is the bane of local development groups, Tidy Towns associations and so on. I am frustrated because I brought in legislation on this. That was then folded into the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022. This is the third time I have raised the issue as a Commencement matter. The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, was before the House in October when I last raised this issue. He indicated agreement was being rolled out on the provisions regarding the use of CCTV and other technologies to help combat illegal dumping and littering that are part of the aforementioned Act. There had been discussions with the Data Protection Commission, DPC, and the Local Government Management Association, LGMA. The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, indicated that by early this year, the agreement with the LGMA would be concluded and sent to every local authority. It would then be a matter for the elected members to adopt the scheme, as was agreed, and that from this spring and summer, local authorities could effectively use CCTV and other technologies with a framework in place that ensured the use adhered to the necessary data protection provisions.

The present Minister of State is very aware of this, as Limerick City and Country Council fell foul of some of the provisions in that regards. However, the intention behind what local authorities and others are trying to do is to catch the small number of individuals who are a scourge and are causing huge environmental damage to urban and rural areas. This sort of dumping presents a real risk to livestock and animals and must be tackled. I am frustrated because we keep being told it is a priority, yet local authorities that want to roll out this technology have not yet got the go-ahead on this. I hope the reply provided to the Minister of State by the Department will advise the Government has been making good on the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth's promise. He said this will be provided to all local authorities in early 2023. We are near the end of the first quarter and I judge that to be "early 2023". We must have the necessary framework to allow these technologies to be used alongside a major anti-littering and anti-dumping campaign. We must give local authorities, development associations and Tidy Towns groups the necessary resources to make certain this scourge finally stops.

I will not be happy if we are again told negotiations are happening on this. That is why we passed the legislation, why the framework was meant to be agreed and why negotiations were entered into with the DPC. I hope the Minister has a much clearer answer on the timeframe and, more importantly, that local authorities will be told they can get on with this work.