€1 million needed to combat the "scourge" of illegal dumping in Laois

Laois County Council will need 100 cameras and a budget of €1 million to tackle the 'scourge' of illegal dumping.

That was the view of Independent Cllr James Kelly who welcomed news that CCTV use should be  permitted early next year.

The issue arose at the latest Laois Joint Policing Committee in a submission from a member of the public. 

The submission asked: “What is being done at a local level to tackle the problem of illegal dumping, particularly in isolated rural areas?” 

Laois County Council Senior Executive Officer Pamela Tynan read a response from the council's Waste Enforcement Department to the submission at the meeting.

“The Waste Enforcement Department continues to tackle illegal dumping in problematic rural areas throughout the county,” they stated. 

“Enforcement efforts are limited by the prohibition on the use of CCTV. However, we are waiting on the Minister to commence the section of the act that allows the use of CCTV for the purposes of environmental enforcement.  It is envisaged that we can use this in early 2024,” they stated. 

 Cllr Kelly described illegal dumping as “the scourge of the county”. 

“This is going on too long now. That is one of the huge problems in the fight against this,” he remarked in relation to CCTV. 

However, he said if permission is granted to use CCTV, funding will be the next hurdle.

“You would want about 100 cameras. We have to catch these people,” he said.  

“We can’t tackle the scourge of illegal dumping with the resources that we have. It is just not possible with the funding that is there,” he said. 

“We would need to treble what is there for litter services,” said Cllr Kelly. 

He claimed a budget of one million euro would be needed to properly target  the dumpers.

Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley claimed the “ball is in the court” of Minister Eamon Ryan to implement the relevant sections of the Circular Economy Bill which has already been signed into law by President Michael D Higgins. He said he would raise the issue in the Dail with Minister Ryan. 

He suggested the Joint Policing Committee should send a letter to Minister Eamon Ryan requesting that he implement the relevant section. 

Public Partnership Network Representative Tom Jones said he fully supported the submission. 

“I think it is important that the message goes out there that you just cannot dump,” he said.