Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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500. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount spent on awareness, warnings and so on to prevent dog fouling, by county. [5314/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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501. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of fines given to persons that did not remove dog fouling, by county. [5315/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 500 and 501 together.

The Litter Pollution Acts, 1997 to 2009, provide the statutory framework to combat littering and include provisions relating to dog fouling. Under the Acts, the primary management and enforcement response to littering (including dog fouling) rests with Local Authorities. It is a matter for each Local Authority to determine the most appropriate course of action to tackle litter pollution locally within the legislation provided, including the most appropriate public awareness, enforcement and clean-up actions in relation to litter and dog fouling, taking account of its own local circumstances and priorities.

My Department does not collate statistics on the number of fines issued by Local Authorities in relation to specific litter offences, such as dog fouling offences. However, my Department does publish data on the revenue generated from Local Authority on-the-spot litter fines and Courts' fines.  The data is available at:

With regard to litter awareness, my Department has, since 1997, co-funded the Local Authority Anti-Litter and Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme (ALAGS).  Local Authorities are responsible for selecting suitable ALAGS projects for funding and deciding on individual grant allocations. Where possible, the focus is on voluntary initiatives by community and environmental groups, and involving schools and young people in anti-litter and anti-graffiti action. Typically, eligible projects include local media campaigns, clean-ups, primary/secondary school competitions, exhibitions and the production of videos, posters and leaflets. 

In 2017, I increased my Department's allocation to overall ALAGS funding by 28% to €884,000.  Furthermore, I specifically requested that all Local Authorities in receipt of funding under the scheme to consider, where practicable, expending a portion of their grant on dog fouling awareness projects. A breakdown of the overall 2017 ALAGS allocations is as follows:

I intend to maintain at least this level of funding for ALAGS in 2018.