David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 139: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 29 of 24 June 2009, when the littering monitoring body in his Department was established; the local authorities whose performance have been assessed in respect of their duties under the Litter Pollution Act 1997 and the objectives of their own litter management plans; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26848/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department first appointed independent consultants to act as the Litter Monitoring Body in May 1999. Their primary function is to operate the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) through collating litter quantification and litter pollution data from the local authorities throughout the year and providing an analysis on the national position to me annually.

Information regarding the performance of local authorities in relation to their responsibilities under the Litter Pollution Acts is provided through the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System Results and enforcement statistics. NLPMS reports for each year are available on www.litter.ie; the 2008 report has just recently been published. Local authorities report statistics in relation to their enforcement of the litter laws to my Department twice yearly and these are available in the Oireachtas Library. The Litter Monitoring Body also provides individual reports to local authorities to enable them to evaluate the success of their anti-litter initiatives and take appropriate action where necessary.

Under the Litter Pollution Acts, each local authority is required to adopt a litter management plan (LMP). The legislation prescribes the specific minimum components of a LMP, requiring information on litter prevention and control activities and the setting of appropriate objectives and targets for the period covered by the plan. An additional function of the Litter Monitoring Body is the periodic assessment of new or amended litter management plans adopted by local authorities. The primary purpose of this assessment is to assess LMPs with respect to the core functions prescribed under the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, and to determine how local authorities have discharged those functions. The 2000 and 2004 reports are available on www.litter.ie. The most recent report, for 2008, is currently being finalised.