John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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474. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of funding spent to combat illegal dumping nationally in each of the years 2016 to 2018, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4297/19]

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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475. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount of funding allocated to combat illegal dumping by county in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4298/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 474 and 475 together.

The total 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 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 of approximately €1 million per annum and of the network of local authority waste enforcement officers of approximately €7.4 million per annum.

In addition, my Department has developed the 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. Since 2017 funding of €3.3 million has been made available from the Environment Fund in this regard which has supported over 400 projects across all 31 local authority areas, remediating black spots and equipping local authority enforcement officers with the latest technologies available to support SMART enforcement of our waste laws.

A review of this initiative has been undertaken to inform a 2019 anti-dumping work programme and the criteria for the selection of projects will be communicated to local authorities shortly.