Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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108. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to provide additional funding to South Dublin County Council to allow it to continue to take effective action in respect of litter and graffiti; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35870/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I am very aware of the problems posed to local communities by litter and graffiti. The role of my Department is to provide the legislative framework to address the issue. Under the Litter Pollution Act 1997, the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to litter pollution, including the defacement of structures by writing or other marks, lie with local authorities. The Act provides significant powers to local authorities to deal with litter and the defacement of structures by writing or other marks. It is a matter for each local authority to decide on the most appropriate public awareness, enforcement and clean-up actions to deal with graffiti, taking account of local circumstances and competing priorities.

In order to support local authority efforts to tackle littering and graffiti, my Department also provides grant funding under the Anti-Litter and Anti-Graffiti Scheme whereby local authorities are invited to submit proposed eligible projects for their functional areas. It is open to local community groups to approach their local authority for assistance with funding for anti-littering and anti-graffiti projects aimed at encouraging long-term behavioural change by individuals who engage in this unsocial behaviour. Under the scheme, each local authority decides which local projects to fund based on its own circumstances and priorities. In 2015, I made a total of €690,000 available to fund suitable projects under this scheme with South Dublin County Council receiving an allocation of €28,000. Given the many competing demands on limited resources, I have no proposals to increase funding through my Department in this area at this time.

It may be of interest to the Deputy to note that that the Department of Justice and Equality also has a role in the control of graffiti through the Criminal Damage Act 1991, which provides for the offences of damaging or defacing property.