Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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406. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the amount allocated to each local authority in each of the years 2017 to 2019 under the enforcement measures grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38264/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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My Department has introduced a number of measures to target illegal dumping and to strengthen efforts to improve waste enforcement generally. These include:

- The provision of an annual waste enforcement grant of €7.4 million to support the recruitment and retention of 150 local authority waste enforcement personnel across the country;

- The establishment of Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLAs) to support and co-ordinate local authority action;

- The establishment of a National Waste Enforcement Steering Committee, which facilitates the deployment of co-ordinated multi agency responses to illegal waste activity across the regions.

In addition, my Department launched the National Anti-Dumping Initiative in 2017, to encourage local authorities, in partnership with community organisations, to identify high risk or problem areas, conduct necessary clean-up operations and develop appropriate enforcement responses to incidences of illegal dumping. In March of this year, I announced funding of €3 million for the 2019 Anti-Dumping Initiative, an increase of 50% on 2018. This funding will support some 280 projects nationwide. Full details of this year’s allocations and the projects funded by this initiative in 2017 and 2018 can be accessed on my Department’s website at the following link:

The allocations made to each local authority under the Local Authority Enforcement Measures Scheme are detailed in the following table. It should be noted that these allocations are currently being reviewed in conjunction with the Local Government Management Agency to ensure that resources continue to be placed where they are needed most.