69. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the additional measures, if any, that will be introduced to deal with littering problems throughout the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41389/24]

Under the Litter Pollution Act, 1997, the primary responsibility for management and enforcement responses to litter pollution lies with local authorities. It is a matter for each local authority to determine the most appropriate public awareness, enforcement, and clean-up actions in relation to litter taking account of local circumstances and priorities.

My Department provides financial support to local authority efforts to tackle litter through the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme. €750,000 was provided under this Scheme in 2023 with a similar amount expected to be made available in 2024.

Funding is also provided annually in support of a number of important anti-litter initiatives such as the National Spring Clean, Picker Pals, the PURE Project and Irish Business against Litter (IBAL).

In addition, in February of this this year, I launched the Deposit Return Scheme for plastic bottles and aluminium beverage containers. While the DRS is intended primarily as a circular economy initiative to drive the separate collection of these materials to support increased levels of recycling, the DRS is also an anti-littering initiative. Early indications, including through the most recent IBAL surveys, are that the DRS is proving very effective in this regard.