Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I second the motion. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, to the House. I thank my Labour Party colleagues for their assistance in tabling this very important motion. In particular, I thank my colleague, Senator Sherlock, for all her hard work in preparation for this important matter, and the work she continues to do with the three unions that she has named, that have been involved in the Oireachtas committee process as well.

The issue I want to concentrate on is illegal dumping, which I and others feel is a direct consequence of the multiple different companies and charges for waste collection in the country.

The Minister of State will be familiar with the Labour Party's Local Government (Use of CCTV in Prosecution of Offences) Bill 2021, which we discussed here on Second Stage. I introduced the Bill on behalf of the party, and we discussed it again during the debate on the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022, which was introduced by the Minister of State. At that stage, he and colleagues such as Senator Malcolm Byrne, who also introduced a Bill, hoped it would be incorporated into the circular economy Bill to allow local authorities to use CCTV and other technologies for the prevention, detection and prosecution of illegal dumping. On 9 February this year, the Minister of State announced that he was giving county councils a legal basis to use CCTV for litter and dumping black spots, following a lengthy discussion with the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA. The problem since then is the lengths to which local authorities have to go to set up a camera in the first place.

I want to go through the procedure facing local authorities. Among many issues, the code of practice stipulates that where a local authority considers that the installation and operation of a CCTV scheme may be an appropriate use of technology for the purposes I have just outlined, a CCTV proposal is to be submitted to an oversight board, which, in turn, must demonstrate the necessity and proportionality of the intended CCTV scheme by means of a local data protection impact assessment, DPIA, before the oversight board will be able to recommend its installation to the chief executive for final approval. Any proposal for a CCTV scheme must be approved, therefore, by the chief executive of each local authority. Under the code of practice, a CCTV proposal shall only be considered justifiable and reasonable if an authorised person can demonstrate to the oversight board that less intrusive reasonable steps have already been taken to deter environmental pollution. These proposals include increased lighting in an area prone to offences, improved signage, more frequent inspections and increased public awareness campaigns.

Prior to placing a CCTV proposal before an oversight board, a DPIA must be conducted. A draft local assessment must be submitted to the data protection officer for review and approved by the director of services before being submitted, along with the business case, to the oversight board. An integral part of the DPIA business case process is that an appropriate public consultation should take place.The level of consultation, I am told, will be determined by the extent to which the introduction of CCTV camera schemes increases the risks to data subjects by its introduction. Next, CCTV shall only be introduced to address and resolve an identifiable and specific problem constituting offences under the Waste Management Act 1996. To that end, CCTV shall only be deployed for specific operational tasks in specific designated locations and not used for general patrol or surveillance.

When we discussed this matter as part of our debate on the circular economy Bill, when I introduced my Bill and when Senator Malcolm Byrne introduced his Bill, we hoped that this provision would be up and running by now. I have read a recent reply the Minister of State gave to a colleague of mine in Kildare County Council, Councillor Aoife Breslin, in which he said that CCTV cameras can now be used by local authorities. I have just detailed a seven-stage process that local authorities must undergo to erect a camera in the first place. My colleague has outlined the fact that local authorities spend anything up to €100 million, as we discussed during our debate on the circular economy Bill, on cleaning up illegal waste yet local authorities must undergo almost a seven-stage process to erect a camera to deter and prosecute illegal dumping. It is red tape and it is completely unbelievable that after all we have been through, after all the discussions that we have had in this House with the Minister of State, and the LGMA, that this is what we are now faced with. All local authorities and council representatives to whom I have spoken just say that this system is unworkable.

I ask the Minister of State, in the context of our Private Member's Bill, to review this with the LGMA and whoever else he has to work with because this process is simply unworkable. Also, by the time the seven-stage process has been completed, the culprits will have got away and that figure of €100 million will have increased. I am sure that we can all agree in this House that the €100 million that is spent, on average, by local authorities to clean up after illegal dumping could much better be spent on public parks, playgrounds, etc., like we discussed during our debate on the circular economy Bill.

Again, I plead with the Minister of State to get something more workable into the system and let us start using CCTV and other methods to prevent illegal dumping as it is ruining our countryside. Everywhere one goes, whether it is the bogs, rivers, etc., one can see that illegal dumping has taken over. It is not just in the countryside but also in urban areas. This was a solution. Last February, when the Minister of State announced this it was very welcome but, unfortunately, it has become unworkable and I look forward to his response.