Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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662. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide details on the amount each local authority has spent on graffiti removal in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36452/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I am very aware of the problems posed to local communities by 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. My Department does not compile statistics on local authority expenditure on graffiti removal.

In order to support local authority efforts to tackle littering and graffiti, my Department 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.

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.