Illegal dumping along roads on the outskirts of Galway could be stopped if local authorities were allowed to use CCTV footage to pursue and prosecute culprits.
This is the view of Independent Galway West TD, Noel Grealish, who raised the issue in the Dáil of the “appalling level of illegal dumping” in the city.
“This is the fourth time in the past two years that I have raised the issue of illegal dumping in the House,” he said. “It continues to be a major scourge on the landscape and it is particularly a problem in rural areas.”
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Dep Grealish said the penalties for illegal dumping were “not strict enough”, and he said the situation where “a person caught on CCTV in the act of illegal dumping cannot be brought to court” as “ridiculous".
As a result, the TD is calling for a change in legislation to allow local councils to use CCTV footage as evidence to prosecute people for illegal dumping. As on previous occasions in the Dáil, Dep Grealish again called for a task force, comprising An Garda Síochána, Department of the Environment officials, and local authorities, be put in place to deal with this issue.
"Such a task force would need to be given powers, including to use CCTV footage and to seize all vehicles and equipment involved in illegal dumping,” he said, “with severe penalties imposed for those caught in the act in respect of the release of their vehicles. I am asking for a commitment that a task force to tackle this problem will be established as a matter of urgency.”
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In response, the Minister for Climate Action and Environment, Eamon Ryan, said it was his intention to facilitate not only the use of CCTV but the use of a broad range of audiovisual recording equipment to assist local authorities in their efforts to combat litter and illegal dumping.
Minister Ryan said a balance had to be struck between the rights to privacy and how data was used, shared, or stored. “We cannot allow flagrant breaches of public environment, waste management, and other rules to continue,” he said, “and a situation where there is no mechanism for local authorities to enforce that.”
