Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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201. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the available grants to develop interactive software that will provide open data on litter. [10173/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department is responsible for ensuring that the policy, statutory and regulatory framework is in place to tackle the challenge of litter nationally. The operation and enforcement of the framework is principally a matter for each Local Authority. The National Litter Pollution Monitoring Survey (NLPMS) is undertaken nationwide annually by Local Authorities. It provides a detailed overview of the litter pollution situation nationally, based on surveys undertaken by individual Local Authorities which are then, with the financial support of my Department, collated into a national report. The most recent results, for 2017, are available to the public on www.litter.ie .

The data obtained from the NLPMS helps Local Authorities to provide more effective litter management planning for their areas, to assess the effectiveness of their litter management strategies, and to ensure the optimum allocation of resources to tackle litter. It provides vital information to the Department on the national picture regarding litter pollution. The results demonstrate that the percentage of areas surveyed deemed to display a high level of cleanliness increased from 48% in 2002 to over 79% in 2017 (latest available data).

The methodology used by Local Authorities to gather litter data, including within the context of the NLPMS, is largely a matter for Local Authorities themselves. However, I am aware that a number of Local Authorities already use technology to gather litter data and, based on their experience, that it does offer the potential to reduce the administrative and time burden in carrying out this important task. I welcome the use of emerging technologies in this context where such benefits arise, and my Department is currently considering the scope for the wider use by Local Authorities of such technology for litter data collection, in consultation with a number of Local Authorities.