This time last year, the Government announced a €5 million fund to deal with littering on beaches. Unfortunately, that barely scratched the surface of the littering scourge affecting beaches around Ireland. Littering is also not the only issue. A major issue is the lack of provision of toilet facilities at beaches. The Taoiseach is very familiar with the beaches of west Cork, such as Long Strand and Barleycove, which are some of the more popular beaches and do not have toilet facilities. Furthermore, there is going to be a chronic issue with parking facilities. The days are lengthening, the sun is shining and, thankfully, people are shortly going to be flocking to the beaches of west Cork. The provision of services is lacking, however, and I would love to see a larger fund being provided to tackle issues such as the lack of parking, littering and the provision of toilet facilities. By the way, the solution to the parking issue is not necessarily the provision of extra parking spaces. It could involve directing active travel funding towards greenways and pedestrian access to beaches.

This is a spot for questions on promised legislation and policy. I ask everyone to bear that in mind. I call the Taoiseach.

I actively travel down to the beach, generally speaking. The walk and swim are part of the one solid continuum, if the Deputy understands what I mean. It is much better for you. Regarding littering, some good initiatives have been undertaken voluntarily as well. I see volunteer groups around the country that gather litter on beaches. Human behaviour is the key to this issue, but we will look at the funding issue as well. I take the Deputy’s point about parking and connecting that aspect with active travel so that investment of that type would be put in at and near beaches such as Rosscarbery, Inchydoney etc. We should put funding behind such initiatives that would encourage people to park perhaps miles back and then walk to the beach, where that is practical and feasible. I am sure Deputy Michael Healy-Rae would agree with that.