Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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574. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount allocated to Louth county council for clean up projects to tackle illegal dumping in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018. [9373/18]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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577. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of convictions for illegal dumping that have taken place by county council area in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018. [9376/18]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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578. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount that has been allocated to each county council area to tackle illegal dumping in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018. [9377/18]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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579. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the number of bogus waste collectors that have been prosecuted by county council area in each of the years 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018. [9378/18]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 574 and 577 to 579, inclusive, together.

Enforcement actions against illegal waste activity are a matter for the Local Authorities and the Office of Environmental Enforcement, OEE, within the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the Department does not compile statistics in relation to prosecutions taken or fines imposed. Information is available through the Local Government Management Agency’s performance indicators annual reports, available from the publications section of the LGMA’s website 0, and the enforcement section of the EPA’s website . The cost of illegal dumping is not collated by my Department as it includes local authority enforcement, disposal and legal costs and also involves costs for other State agencies such as An Garda Síochána.

Illegal dumping is first and foremost a matter of individual responsibility and compliance with the law.While enforcement action in this area is a matter in the first instance for local authorities, my Department encourages a multi-facetted approach to tackling the problem, incorporating enforcement, public awareness and education and, as such, provides funding to support the activities of the waste enforcement regional lead authorities, WERLAs, of approximately €1 million per annum and of the network of local authority waste enforcement officers of approximately €7.4 million per annum.  Louth County Council receives an annual grant of €130,000 in this regard.

In recognition of the particular difficulties border counties have experienced in dealing with diesel laundering waste dumping, my Department has also fully reimbursed the clean-up costs associated with this nefarious practice with payments of €235,474, €922,518 and €174,906 being made to Louth County Council for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively.

In addition, my Department has developed an anti-dumping initiative to work in partnership with local authorities and community organisations in identifying high risk or problem areas, developing appropriate enforcement responses and carrying out clean-up operations. The 2017 anti-dumping initiative saw funding of €1.26 million provided, which supported 229 projects across the country.  The allocations provided to each local authority, including Louth County Council, are detailed in the table below. This year, I am increasing the allocation to €2 million to build on the momentum that has now been created and to provide for an increased focus on identifying and prosecuting illegal dumpers.