Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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242. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the steps he is taking to reduce illegal dumping in County Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17499/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy published in September 2020 contains a range of actions designed to enhance existing waste enforcement activity. These include: - an enhanced role for the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLAs),

- the development of an anti-dumping toolkit for use by local authorities,

- the development of an illegal and unauthorised sites action plan to assist local authorities,

- a deposit and return scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium cans,

- a new national communications and education programme,

- greater use of fixed penalty notices,

- data-proofing of waste legislation to facilitate use of available and emerging technologies in a GDPR-compliant manner;

I intend advancing the latter two bullet points, via the forthcoming Circular Economy Bill,

The policy updates will build on existing actions to combat illegal dumping, such as the Anti-Dumping Initiative (ADI). Last year €3m was allocated to local authorities in support of the ADI. This funding supported over 300 projects nationwide during 2020, including a national anti-dumping awareness communications campaign, "Your Country - Your Waste", which I launched in November 2020. My Department provided funding of €118,000 to Cork City Council and €111,000 to Cork County Council under the ADI in 2020.

My Department also supports local authorities and Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities through the annual Local Authority Waste Enforcement Measures Grant Scheme (WEG), which supports the recruitment and retention of over 150 local authority waste enforcement personnel. Cork City Council received an allocation of €275,000 under the WEG in 2020 while Cork County Council received €455,000.