Illegal dumping in Kildare 'is as bad as ever', Senator claims
Illegal dumping 'is as bad as ever' in Kildare: that's according to one Senator from the county.
Labour Senator Mark Wall made the claim on his official website, when he posted a lengthy statement describing his frustration at the presence of litter in the county.
His comments follow his announcement from yesterday, in which he welcomed the government's extension of shared healthcare scheme following a Brexit meeting in the Seanad.
Senator Wall expressed his frustrations in his statement: "Unfortunately, as I am sure many Members of the House are aware, illegal dumping is as bad as ever."
"My local authority, Kildare County Council, recently ran a one-day amnesty on mattresses and couches; in one day alone, it collected 75 tonnes of couches and mattresses at an estimated cost of €50,000."
He added that he continues to receive calls on a weekly – "sometimes daily" – basis about this issue.
Senator Wall continued: "There is no doubt that we need solutions and the use of CCTV will help.
"We estimated at the time of the debate on the Bill that €90 million is being spent nationally on the clean-up of illegal dumping.
"As I said before, we can imagine the number of community projects we could complete with this money."
He added that he wished to thank once again all of the Tidy Towns and community groups, which he said "do so much to combat this problem."
"I would appreciate if the Leader could organise a debate on the circular economy Bill with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications so that we can discuss, and finally come up with some solutions to, this massive problem for our State," he concluded.
Senator Wall's comments, especially those regarding the implementation of CCTV in problem areas, echoes the sentiments held by Kildare People Before Profit representative Paul Mahon, who made a similar suggestion while hitting out at the presence of illegal dumping in Carbury.
In related news, a new community alert scheme for the Kildoon area near Nurney was recently established to tackle illegal dumping in the rural area with the help of local gardaí and Kildare County Council.