Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Under the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to litter pollution lies with local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine the most appropriate public awareness, enforcement, and clean-up actions in relation to litter taking account of local circumstances and priorities.

My Department does not collate statistics on the number of fines issued by Local Authorities in relation to specific litter offences, such as dog fouling offences. Questions in relation to the number of litter fines issued, revenue raised through the imposition of such fines and the cost of advertising in each county should be directed to the relevant local authority.

My Department provides financial support to local authority efforts to tackle litter through the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme. €750,000 was provided under this Scheme in 2022 with a similar amount expected to be made available in 2023.

Funding is also provided annually in support of a number of important anti-litter initiatives such as the National Spring Clean, Picker Pals, the PURE Project and Irish Business against Litter.

The recently enacted Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act advances several legislative provisions which will further support Local Authorities in their anti-litter efforts to tackle enhance efforts, including providing for the GDPR-compliant use of a range of technologies, such as CCTV for litter enforcement purposes and an increase in the level of the on-the-spot fine for littering.