Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

38. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to assist local authorities further in combatting the issue of illegal dumping; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38382/21]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

39. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to use CCTV more efficiently to deal with illegal dumping; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38383/21]

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 39 together.

My Department published the General Scheme of the Circular Economy Bill 2021 on 15 June 2021. It is my intention to facilitate not only the use of CCTV, but also the use of a broad range of Audio Visual Recording equipment under the Bill in order to combat illegal dumping.

A combination of legislation and guidance will help to ensure that the processing of personal data may be carried out by local authorities tasked with enforcing both litter and waste law, thus providing an important deterrent in order to protect our environment from the scourge of illegal dumping, while at the same time respecting the privacy rights of citizens. The Bill can also facilitate consideration of the use of Fixed Penalty Notices for waste enforcement purposes.

My Department provides significant support to local authority waste enforcement activity, through the annual Local Authority Waste Enforcement Measures Grant Scheme, which supports the recruitment and retention of over 150 local authority waste enforcement personnel across the country. €7.6mn has been allocated in support of this scheme in 2021, with a further €1mn allocated to the Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authority (WERLA) Offices, which were established in 2015 to oversee local authority enforcement efforts.

My Department also continues to support the annual Anti-Dumping Initiative (ADI), which was introduced in 2017 to encourage a collaborative approach between local authorities, communities and other State Agencies to tackling the problem of illegal dumping. The ADI focuses on four key areas, prevention, abatement, education and enforcement and local authority project proposals are assessed and approved by the WERLA Offices, based on their potential impact in these four areas. Since the introduction of the ADI in 2017, my Department has provided over €9m to the local authority sector in support of over 1,000 projects nationwide and over 10,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste have been removed from our landscape.

As was the case in 2020, €3m has been allocated to the Anti-Dumping Initiative in 2021 and the WERLA Offices are currently finalising their consideration of project proposals.