Patrick Nulty (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 536: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the role of the environmental awareness teams in county and city councils; if the national and regional network of local agenda 21 officers is still in existence; if so, the role it now plays; the amount that was allocated to each local authority by year since the introduction of the local agenda fund in 1997; the income source of this fund; if there has been any evaluation of the fund and the outcomes of the projects funded under its auspices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11490/12]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Local Agenda 21 Environmental Partnership Fund, which has been in operation since 1997, promotes sustainable development by assisting small scale, non-profit environmental projects at local level. The scheme attracts significant interest throughout the country; a total of 515 projects were funded by the scheme in 2011. Funds provided by my Department are matched by the relevant local authority and it is also recommended that this combined funding be supplemented, where possible, by other funding sources, such as private sector funding, to maximise the potential of partnership arrangements.

Each local authority is responsible for its own staffing arrangements and my Department does not maintain a list of local authority staff that have been nominated as Local Agenda 21 (LA21) Officers or Environmental Awareness Officers (EAOs). In some local authorities the role of LA21 Officer may be assigned to a staff member who is also assigned the role of EAO.

The EAOs in local authorities actively promote positive action to protect our environment and work closely with schools, community groups and members of the public. My Department facilitates periodic meetings of a network of EAOs, including some LA21 officers, for the purpose of sharing of information and best practice in environmental matters. Guest speakers are invited to address the meetings on a variety of topical environmental issues. The network also communicates regularly via email.

The amounts allocated to each local authority for the years 2002 to 2011 are set out in the table below. The information sought prior to 2002 is not readily available and compilation of this information would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work. The LA21 scheme has been funded from the Environment Fund since 2003; prior to that it was funded through the Department's Vote allocation.

The operation of the scheme is kept under constant review; each year the outcome of individual projects is monitored through completion reports which must be submitted for all projects funded under the scheme. A wide variety of projects are funded under the scheme and it provides support for local, environmentally beneficial projects, which might otherwise be difficult for the community to undertake. A breakdown of the project types funded in 2011 is as follows:

The amounts set out in the table above are the actual payments made to the local authorities in each year. Under the scheme each local authority is allocated a specified amount, however, in some cases they may not all use their full allocation and in other cases may use none of their allocation (i.e. the nil amounts above). Amounts not used by individual local authorities are subsequently offered to the other local authorities and redistributed to where there is demand.