Regina Doherty (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for coming to the House. I appreciate that the issue I am raising is not directly under his remit but I would be grateful for his assistance on it within his Department. The problem of abandoned vehicles has the potential to affect people living on every housing estate, back road and boreen. It has an impact in every part of the country. Vehicles lying idle on our roads are not just a safety hazard; they are rightly recognised as an environmental and financial scourge. There is a cost not just to the pockets of the State and the individuals concerned but also for the planet.

Abandoned vehicles are causing no end of issues in my neck of the woods, and not just because they are an eyesore. In one instance, there is a health and safety hazard. A gentleman called Paddy, whom I have come to know well, uses a wheelchair and cannot get access to the beach. This is not a new issue. We have been talking about it for years. Looking at the Statute Book, legislation was passed donkey's years ago, in the 1980s, when I was only a child, which attempted to deal with this issue. I refer to the Road Traffic (Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations 1983.It is on the Statute Book, but it is nobody’s responsibility. It is falling between a number of stools.

I am not just talking about how long it takes to get rid of an abandoned car, and it takes an awful lot longer than it should or than anybody would like it to. I am talking about the co-operation between the relevant authorities, which, in my experience in the past couple of months, does not seem to happen. I will provide an example. It was recently reported to my office that a car was abandoned on the street in Skerries, in Fingal County Council’s remit. Anybody who knows Skerries knows that it is a beautiful little town. It is full of narrow streets and laneways. Some of them lead down to the beach. It is a gorgeous little town. On this particular street, the car was becoming a hazard for everybody on the street, but particularly for one gentleman, Paddy, because it was impeding his access to the waterfront walkway that he normally enjoys every single day. That is the safety hazard part.

Another incident was reported to the office recently. It involved a car sitting on the riverbank in a secluded area of the Ward River Valley Regional Park. It had been hit by a tree and was completely destroyed. It was pointed out by the gentleman who discovered it that the car was not just full of harmful toxins that were now seeping into the river basin, it was really an environmental pit.

The cost of scrapping a car is significant. Before I get to that, however, I want to talk about the key point here. When people or politicians see an abandoned car, in many cases we report the matter to our local authority. My local authority is Fingal County Council. I reported both of these matters to Fingal County Council and was informed that it is not responsible because the number plates are still on the cars. I was directed to An Garda Síochána. I was informed by An Garda Síochána that responsibility lies with the environmental section of Fingal County Council. I get the impression, and I do not say this lightly, that what we are being told is that if the cars did not have number plates, somebody somewhere would be able to act, which is nearly incentivising me to go and take the bloody number plates off the cars so that I can get somebody to act. It should not be that way. There is no process between our local authorities and An Garda Síochána. To be honest – I am not trying to be smart – that is not good enough. I know both organisations are incredibly busy.

We need a process and direction from the Department. Perhaps it could be a Venn diagram approach whereby there would be an overlap and shared responsibility. They should make sure that when something is reported, they report it directly to the owner and give the owner a specific amount of time with penalties attached to it to remove the car or make it safe. If the owner does not do that, the State should to take it into account to remove the car and the environmental impact it is causing, the safety issues, in most cases, and just the plain old pain in the butt that particularly housing estates experience by seeing these.

I put details of this matter up on Facebook yesterday and somebody pointed me to the national car test centre just off the M50. I went to the site, and there are cars upon cars. I would say there are about 40 abandon cars. Yet, it is nobody’s responsibility. I ask the Minister of State to help me make it somebody’s responsibility by encouraging joined-up thinking on the part of An Garda Síochána and our local authorities.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising the issue. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, and his Department have not been made aware of any deterioration in the situation regarding abandoned vehicles. However, the Minister and I are of the view that it is important that the enforcement bodies stay on top of this matter. The Senator highlighted a significant issue. We have seen considerable improvements in this area since the transposition of the end-of-life vehicle directive into Irish legislation in 2014 and the subsequent adoption of our compliance scheme on the approach to the issue.

With regard to enforcement, section 71 of the Waste Management Act specifically prohibits the abandonment of vehicles on any land and creates an offence for so doing. It also enables local authorities to enter on any land upon which vehicles have been abandoned to remove and store such abandoned vehicles. Penalties under the Waste Management Act are substantial and may result in a fine of up to €5,000 and-or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding 12 months on foot of a summary conviction. In the case of conviction or on indictment, penalties may rise to fines of up to €15 million and-or a term of imprisonment of up to ten years.

The Road Traffic (Removal, Storage and Disposal of Vehicles) Regulations, which were made pursuant to section 97 of the Road Traffic Act, also give An Garda Síochána powers relating to the removal, storage and disposal of abandoned vehicles.

On the cost to local authorities of removing and storing abandoned vehicles, the vehicles become the property of the local authority if not reclaimed by the registered owner within a period of four weeks. If a registered owner comes forward or is identified, the local authority may then seek reimbursement of the expenditure incurred for removal and storage. It is important to note that the Waste Management (End-of-Life Vehicles) Regulations 2006 impose an obligation on the registered owner of a vehicle to dispose of it at an authorised treatment facility for appropriate treatment and recovery. It is generally not very expensive to do that.It is hard to comprehend how people would abandon them.

Under these regulations, authorised treatment facilities are obliged to provide for the free take-back of end-of-life vehicles and to issue a certificate of destruction to the registered owners. End-of-Life Vehicles Environmental Services, ELVES, CLG is a not-for-profit company established in 2017 which has been approved as the compliance scheme for the ELV sector in Ireland. The scheme is funded by fees from producer members amounting to approximately €1.7 million per annum. The principal objective of this compliance scheme is the attainment of the national targets as set out in EC Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles. ELVES has also established a fund to assist local authorities with abandoned vehicles.

The success of our approach in this area is demonstrated by the most recently available results, which indicate that in 2020, Ireland achieved a 90% reuse and recycling rate and a 97% recovery and reuse rate for end-of-life vehicles, comfortably meeting EC targets in this regard.

The Minister’s Department will continue, as co-chair of the national waste enforcement steering committee, NWESC, to oversee waste enforcement efforts, including those relating to abandoned and end-of-life vehicles, to encourage ongoing collaboration between the local authorities and An Garda Síochána and to develop appropriate policy interventions to specific issues as they may arise. In this regard, the Minister welcomes the ongoing development of the regional multi-agency forums, which were launched by An Garda Síochána in 2020 in association with the Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the waste enforcement regional lead authorities, and the National TransFrontier Shipment Office. The key objective of these forums is to facilitate a co-ordinated approach to enforcement efforts across the regions in the area of waste and environment-related crime. It should also be noted that the NWESC has identified enforcement of the ELV directive, and more generally the waste metal industry, as a national waste enforcement priority for the period 2022 to 2024.

If it okay with the Senator, I will come back in again on the supplementary question on the specific issue.

Regina Doherty (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am absolutely fascinated that everything the Minister of State has read out exists. I am delighted that it does, but I have to tell the Minister of State that it is not working. I am even more fascinated by the line "The success of our approach in this area is demonstrated by the most recently available results", which do look great but they are not reflected in what we see. There are the two examples just from the past couple of weeks. I am now going to do an audit of abandoned cars in my county, and I will probably ask others to help me to do the same. It is not working. Both of the agencies I went to with the two examples sent me away to the other agency. That does not really instil confidence that all of these are available. I am genuinely pleased they are available because now I have some ammunition to be able to go back to both of them to say they have powers, authorisation and money and to ask why they are ignoring citizens' requests to get rid of abandoned cars. I can guarantee the Minister of State that the two people who own these cars, and we know who they are because they still have the registration numbers of them, have not even been contacted by An Garda Síochána or by Fingal County Council.

When the Minister of State talks about a 90% reuse and recycling rate and a 97% recovery rate, do these relate only to the vehicles recovered? Is there a list of all vehicles that have been reported and about which nothing is known? That to me would be far more worrying. I am grateful for the information provided by the Minister of State but it does force me to get an audit of the abandoned cars in my county.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

If there are specific issues in relation to vehicles such as the number plate having been removed, there are other identifying factors on the vehicle, including the chassis numbers and so on. I believe, however, that 97% is a high level of compliance. It is way beyond the minimum requirement at EU level. The Department is very much on top of it and continues to monitor it. If there are issues specifically, the local authority also has a role. It is critically important they fulfil that role with regard to their duties under the ELV regulations.

In my own experience in my constituency, any time there was an issue with an abandoned vehicle it was dealt with in a very timely manner. I do hope this would be the case throughout the State.