Louth Green Party

Making the announcement, Minister Gormley said "As part of the Environment Fund programme, I am pleased to be able to provide local authorities with funding to assist them with the costs which they have incurred in operating their recycling facilities over the period July to December 2006. The funding is being paid on the basis of the information provided by local authorities on the costs and the level of recycling and recovery achieved in these six months".

Local Councillor Mark Dearey welcomed the announcement saying "The sum granted by Minister Gormley €140,000 in Louth and €108,000 in Meath is a clear acknowledgement of the work being done by Louth and Meath Local Authorities. It also recognises the additional costs associated with running bring centres and of dealing with some plastics waste streams.” He continued “I will be writing to the County Managers in Louth and Meath this week to ascertain if any of this sum can be assigned in particular to smaller communities still awaiting the introduction of bring centres or the addition of extra waste streams beyond the standard glass, aluminium newspaper collections”

"The thing about recycling", Cllr Dearey added "is that once you get into the mind set that almost everything can be recycled or composted you want to recycle all your waste. It should be possible to bring cardboard, bulbs and plastic food containers to even smaller bring centres outside of the very impressive big two in Drogheda and Dundalk"

The Environment Fund was established with the revenues obtained from the Plastic Bag Levy introduced in March 2002 and the Landfill Levy introduced in July 2002. The Fund is used to provide assistance or support in respect of a range of waste management, litter and other environmental initiatives and since November 2002, almost €100m has been allocated in direct grant assistance towards the capital costs of providing a range of local authority recycling projects.

Minister Gormley congratulated local authorities on the pace at which they are continuing to provide quality facilities. "We all have a role to play in managing our waste in the most environmentally friendly way possible. I would encourage all local authorities to continue delivering the range of waste management infrastructure that is needed. It is clear that Irish people are willing to act collectively in tackling our waste issues and will use recycling facilities when they are provided. I am
committed to playing my part in terms of providing supporting funding and am confident of seeing further progress in this regard”.