Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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1785. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the percentage of households he estimates that do not avail of an authorised waste collection service; if he ensures that local authorities investigate whether these households manage their waste in an environmentally acceptable manner in accordance with legislation and waste management plans; and the level of monitoring by local authorities of these households' waste disposal practices. [28118/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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The most recent published figures for the number of households availing of a three bin collection service are set out in the report Performance Indicators in Local Authorities 2015 which indicates that approximately 575,000 or 35% of households are availing of such a service. The figures availing of a kerbside collection service are considerably higher. The 2012 National Waste Report suggested some 72% of households avail of at a kerbside collection service.  A copy of the 2015 Performance Indicators report is available on the Local Government Management Agency website at-http://www.lgma.ie/sites/default/files/2015-pi-report.pdfEach local authority is responsible for the supervision and the enforcement of the relevant provisions of the Waste Management Act in relation to the holding, recovery and disposal of waste within its functional area. Local authorities have specific powers under the Act to require measures to be taken, or to take measures directly, to prevent or limit environmental pollution caused or likely to be caused by the holding, recovery or disposal of waste, and to mitigate or remedy the effects on the environment of such activity.

My role, as Minister, is to provide the legislative and policy framework under which both local authority and Environmental Protection Agency enforcement action is initiated. Enforcement action against illegal waste activity is a matter for the local authorities and the Office of Environmental Enforcement of the EPA as appropriate.

Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLAs) have been established in each of the three existing waste regions, with responsibility for coordinating waste enforcement actions and ensuring consistent enforcement of waste legislation while still leaving local authority personnel as first responders on the ground to specific breaches of waste legislation. This will facilitate a transformation from process-driven enforcement, structured around separate implementation of individual regulations, to one that focuses greatest effort on the waste problems and issues that matter most and to take swift, proportionate and effective action.

Household waste management compliance including brown bin is a priority area for enforcement in 2017 for the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities.

Underpinning waste enforcement is state funding for waste enforcement officers. I have made €9 million available from the Environment Fund this year to support the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities and the recruitment and continued employment of a network of local authority waste enforcement officers. This investment is critical in providing an enhanced response on the ground to other infractions of the waste code.

In terms of investigation whether households manage their waste in an environmentally acceptable manner, certain local authorities have introduced bye-laws which require householders to sign up to a household waste collection service. The Regional Waste Management Planning Offices are currently preparing a template to help standardise bye-laws on the presentation of waste. The draft template bye-laws place the onus of proof on the householder to prove that they are managing their waste correctly by signing up to a waste collection service or providing receipts for the deposit of waste in authorised facilities. If adopted by the elected members of a local authority, such bye-laws would also place an obligation on householders to segregate food waste in area’s where a separate food waste bin must be provided. The Regional Waste Management Plans also contain further measures to identify areas of low collection and to work with communities and collectors to address this issue.