Moves to allow councils to use drones and CCTV in illegal dumping crackdown

Local authorities spend up to €100m a year nationally dealing with illegal dumping and littering, according to Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne. Picture: Tony O'Shea

Local authorities would be permitted to use CCTV, drones, and number plate recognition technology to tackle illegal dumping under new legislation due before the Seanad on Wednesday.

The bill, from Fianna Fáil's Malcolm Byrne, would provide a legal framework for the use of the technology in what Mr Byrne called "narrowly defined circumstances" to stop dumping.

Mr Byrne said that local authorities had spent up to €100m a year nationally dealing with illegal dumping and littering. However, he said that the use of fixed CCTV and drones was not provided for against dumping. 

He said his bill would avoid situations such as that in Limerick, where the council was fined €110,000 for improper use of CCTV.

The authority was handed a €110,000 fine, given an official reprimand, and ordered to bring its data processing in terms of its CCTV systems into line with the GDPR.

GDPR-compliant

Mr Byrne said that his bill would be GDPR-compliant and would follow legislation used for speed vans on roads, where data is only permitted to be used to detect speeding. He said the bill could be in place by the summer, faster than the Government's Circular Economy Bill.

“This is as much an urban problem as a rural one," said Mr Byrne.

"I know this annoyance is shared by councillors across the country. This bill is intended to empower local authorities to authorise the installation and operation of surveillance devices for the purposes of deterring, preventing, detecting, and prosecuting certain offences."