Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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722. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of funding his Department allocated to An Taisce in each of the years 2012 to 2020; the expected allocation for 2021; the expected allocation for 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19006/21]

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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731. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the level of State funding provided by his Department to An Taisce every year for the past five years; the categories under which such funding has been provided; the amount of funding provided to An Taisce which has been used by the body for legal challenges against planning applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19286/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 722 and 731 together.

My Department has provided a total of €3.9m to An Taisce between 2012 and 2020. Some €720,000 has been budgeted for 2021.

This funding supports a range of environmental education, awareness raising and citizen activation programmes operated by An Taisce. These programmes include:

- The Blue Flag programme, which aims to improve bathing water quality by encouraging compliance with EU bathing water quality standards, information provision, environmental education, safety and beach management;

- The Green Schools programme, which aims to teach schoolchildren about the complexity, value and importance of the marine environment and looks at the detrimental impact certain human activities can have upon it, as well as teaching them about marine biodiversity and habitats and the impacts of other human activities;

- The Clean Coasts programme, which engages coastal communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life. As well as local community groups, it engages local authorities, State Agencies and the business community who work together in an integrated way to implement this programme; and

- The Green Flag programme, which seeks to promote best practice management of green heritage sites, and sustainably enhances heritage tourism to these sites.

It is a condition of funding for these programmes that it is only used for the agreed purpose and approved criteria within An Taisce’s Environmental Education Unit. My Department's grant support for these programmes may not be used to fund any other programmes or the operations of any other unit of An Taisce.

Please see below table for a breakdown of funding to An Taisce by subhead in each of the years 2012-2021: