Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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138. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the steps he is taking to address litter and illegal dumping. [7429/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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While the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to litter pollution lies with local authorities my Department provide extensive policy, financial and legislative support.

For example, my Department provided €750,000under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme for 2022, with a similar amount expected to be made available in 2023. Under this scheme local authorities are responsible for selecting suitable projects and locations for funding and grant allocations.

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 also advances several legislative provisions which will further enhance efforts in this area, 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.

In addition, my Department provides significant support to the local authority sector in their efforts to tackle illegal dumping. Almost €15m, including €2.8m in 2022, has been provided to the sector under the Anti-Dumping Initiative (ADI) since it was first introduced in 2017 to encourage a collaborative approach between local authorities, community groups and other State Agencies to tackling the problem.

My Department also continues to invest heavily in the local authority waste enforcement network through the Local Authority Waste Enforcement Measures Grant Scheme, with the intention of maintaining a visible presence of waste enforcement personnel on the ground across the State. €7.7m was provided to local authorities under the scheme in 2022, while a further €1mn was provided to support the ongoing enhancement of the three Waste Enforcement Regional Lead Authorities (WERLAs).