Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 465: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his views on a special grant to allow cash strapped local authorities such as South Dublin County Council provide adequate coverage and collection of litter bins, in view of the growing litter problem; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40112/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Primary responsibility for developing and implementing responses to the litter problem rests with local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine the level of expenditure on local services, including their anti-litter activities, as part of its estimates process. In this context, I recently notified South Dublin County Council of its 2006 general purpose grant from the local government fund in the amount of €24.6 million. This represents an increase of over 5% on the corresponding allocation for 2005 and 114% over its 1997 allocation. Taken together with the expected impact on rates income in 2006 arising from the global valuation of certain utilities, Dublin South County Council will have an increase of almost 11% over its 2005 general purpose allocation. Against this background, I do not propose to issue a special grant of the kind sought in the question.