To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail the number of instances of fly-tipping recorded since the March lockdown to date, compared to the same period in 2019.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail the number of instances of fly-tipping recorded since the March lockdown to date, compared to the same period in 2019

Incidences of alleged ‘illegal waste disposal’ reported to my Department are recorded as such, and not under the specific term ‘fly-tipping’. Since 23 March 2020 to date, my Department has received 782 reported incidents of alleged ‘illegal waste disposal’, compared to 566 in the same period last year, an increase of 38%.

My Department focuses its enforcement actions primarily on larger scale waste dumping activity rather than low level ad hoc dumping often referred to as ‘fly-tipping’, which is primarily addressed by District Councils (DCs). The increase in waste incidents given above concerned low level ad hoc dumping which were subsequently referred to and dealt with by DCs.