Leitrim is the county with the lowest cost for cleaning up after illegal dumping
Leitrim County Council spent €27,166 in clean- up costs, while it received €136,803.18 under the Anti-Dumping Initiative.
Leitrim has the lowest cost in the country when it comes to tidying up after illegal dumping, a new report published in the Farmer's Journal has shown.
Leitrim County Council spent €27,166 in clean- up costs, while it received €136,803.18 under the Anti-Dumping Initiative.
Meanwhile Kildare had the highest costs in the country with €535,877 spent clearing illegally dumped waste. The local authority received just €39,083 through the Government’s Anti-Dumping Initiative fund.
The report found that over €4m of taxpayers’ money was spent clearing rural Ireland of illegally dumped waste in 2025 with areas such as rural roads, beauty spots and forestry entrances targeted.
The figure was obtained through a series of Freedom of Information requests, made by Irish Country Living, to all 25 local authorities outside Dublin.
Some authorities were unable to release the clean-up figures, as they are not yet determined in overall budgets, while others refused to extract illegal dumping clean-up costs from more general budgetary figures.
The report also noted thath the number of fines and prosecutions was just 263.
Government supports each local authority through an Anti-Dumping Initiative fund, set up in 2017 to identify high-risk or problem areas. The fund has provided over €23m in the past nine years, helping to remove over 26,400 tonnes of waste from the countryside.