merrion street

Environment Minister Phil Hogan today announced €1 million in funding to local authorities under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme, and a further €0.5 million to assist local authorities to deal with litter at key tourist locations during the peak summer season, under the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant Scheme.

The Minister also published the 2010 National Litter Pollution Monitoring system report, which provides informationa bout the extent, causes and composition of litter in Ireland.

The 2010 report reveals that:

• There has been an increase in litter free areas from 6.8% in 2009 to 9.7% in 2010;
• 62.8% of all areas surveyed were slightly littered, a decrease of 0.7% on 2009 levels;
• Moderately and significantly polluted areas have decreased by 1.5% and 0.6% to 24.2% and 3.1% respectively;
• The percentage of grossly polluted areas remained constant at 0.3%

On the funding for local authorities, the Minister said:

My Department is committed to providing support to litter awareness initiatives in order to educate and create greater public awareness of the positive social and economic effects a litter free environment can help provide.  My Department will continue to engage with the EPA, the local authorities, the NRA, Fáilte Ireland, community groups and other interested stakeholders to ensure that litter levels continue to improve across the country. It is crucial that we all work together to present the country in the best possible light. We must create an attitude amongst the public that littering is an unacceptable, anti-social behaviour with damaging societal and economic consequences.

Welcoming the publication of the National Litter Pollution Monitoring system report, the Minister said:

The report shows that litter levels across the country continue to improve, with over 72% of areas surveyed demonstrating a high level of cleanliness. This is the best result achieved since monitoring began in 2002, when only 48% of areas surveyed achieved this level. It is evident from these results that anti-litter measures in place across the country are working, and I commend the local authorities and community groups for their ongoing efforts. However, we must all continue to work together, to ensure that improvements are maintained in the current challenging economic climate.