Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount raised by the plastic bag levy for each year since its commencement with a detailed description of the way these funds have been spent for each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21797/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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The net amount remitted to my Department in 2007 in respect of the plastic bag levy was €22,211,727. Copies of the Environment Fund's Annual Accounts up to and including 2006 are available in the Oireachtas library and detail the amount received in respect of the plastic bag levy for years prior to 2007. The 2007 Annual Accounts will be lodged in the Oireachtas library in due course after they have been audited by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

As receipts from both the plastic bag levy and the landfill levy are lodged into the Environment Fund it is not possible to give a detailed breakdown of how funds from the plastic bag levy alone are distributed.

However funding provided under the Environment Fund can only be used for activities that support the environment. It has been used to support activities such as: operational costs of running civic recycling facilities; enforcement of the Waste Management Acts; North / south waste initiatives such as the award winning all-island scheme for the management of waste fridges and freezers; waste awareness campaigns; a very successful "Green Schools" initiative; and the provision of waste management infrastructure including civic recycling facilities and bring centres.

More detail in relation to expenditure from the Environment Fund is provided in the Annual Accounts.