Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The setting of budgets for individual Environmental Protection Agency ​ (EPA) programmes is a matter for the Agency as an independent statutory body. As Minister I have no role in the setting of specific operational budgets for the Agency. My Department provides annual funding to the EPA, in the form of an overall block grant to the Agency . In 2021, some €50,177,000 in such funding was provided to the Agency from the Department's Vote. An allocation for 2022 will be the subject of discussion between the Agency and the Department within the normal budgetary process later in the year.

As provided for in ‘A Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, Ireland’s National Waste Policy 2020 – 2025’, the existing National Waste Prevention Programme led by the EPA is currently being reconfigured as a national Circular Economy Programme.  The new Programme will be critical in accelerating Ireland’s move to a circular economy by businesses, householders and the public sector. The Agency's proposals for the reconfigured programme are currently open for public consultation and can be accessed at www.epa.ie/pubs/consultation/irelandscirculareconomyprogramme.html.