Written answers

Wednesday, 5 October 2022

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Recycling Policy

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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373. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if all his Department’s buildings have recycling arrangements in place; if not, the steps that are being taken to ensure that the recycling of workplace waste is facilitated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49555/22]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has recycling arrangements in place for the appropriate disposal of multiple products including general waste, compostable waste, recyclable waste, glass bottles, confidential waste, polystyrene recycling, WEEE recycling and furniture recycling. In the main, all services are secured through the OGP Framework with service providers adhering to the ISO 140001, environmental management systems, standard.

DAFM also adheres to the ISO27001 security protocol for the re-use of computer hardware. Depending on the device, my Department recycles ICT related hardware that becomes redundant/obsolete via four options, which are: internal redeployment, external redeployment, external recycling or physical destruction.

In addition to the above and to encourage greater segregation of waste, new clearly labelled coloured bins, facilitating staff to separate waste into general, recycled and compostable waste, have been purchased allowing for the removal of small individual desk bins. These bins are currently being distributed to Department offices nationwide.

Furthermore, in order to drive sustainable practices locally, DAFM has an established network of Green Teams throughout its own nationwide network of offices. The Green Teams consists of volunteer representatives at all grades who serve as green champions throughout the various locations. The Green Team's goals are to raise awareness and implement practices locally which reduce my Department’s environmental footprint, encourage waste segregation, recycling and support biodiversity projects.

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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374. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development when the Pobal maps on deprivation levels will be updated with the data from the most recent census. [48752/22]

Photo of Joe O'BrienJoe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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Pobal works on behalf of Government to support communities and local agencies toward achieving social inclusion and development. As part of this service, they have developed 'Pobal Maps', a free Geographical Information System (GIS) informed by census data which provides a range of functions, such as area deprivation profiling, details on Childcare Services, plus a range of other funded services throughout the Republic of Ireland.

The Census 2022 data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is expected to be available in Q2/Q3 2023 and Pobal expect to have the updated deprivation data available on Pobal maps by October 2023.

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