Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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655. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the funding that will be made available to Galway County Council for the purpose of developing a recycling centre in Casla, Connemara, which has been planned by them in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta; the steps that need to be taken to apply and draw down such funding; and the amount of the cost his Department would fund. [34509/16]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Considerable investment was made in recycling facilities and their operation at local authority level between the years 2000 and 2015.  These funding streams were brought to a close as a result of declining demand for further facilities from local authorities and reduced available financial resources.  There is currently no funding support available for developments of this type.  

Under the NDP 2007-2013 Waste Recycling Capital Grants Scheme and the previous scheme, which operated between 2000 and 2006, the then Department of Environment, Community and Local Government provided capital grant assistance of over €100 million to local authorities for the development of waste recycling infrastructure.  Projects developed under the schemes included bring banks, composting facilities, materials recovery facilities, civic amenity sites and biological treatment facilities.  As a result, the number of civic amenity facilities has risen to over 118; and the number of bring banks to more than 1,922.

Support for operating costs at recycling facilities was also made available to local authorities for a number of years by the former department responsible.  The scheme made funding available for the purpose of running recycling reception centres.  However, the scheme was closed in 2015.  The payments made in October 2015 for the period January to June 2015 were the final tranche of payments to be made under this scheme.  The County and City Management Association were informed in writing of this development in March 2016 and a further letter issued to the Regional Waste Co-ordinators in September 2016 confirming the closure of the above scheme.