Cllr. Cormac Devlin - Councillor For Dún Laoghaire

€50,000 GRANT ANNOUNCED FOR

PUBLIC EDUCATION & AWARENESS

INITIATIVES ON LITTER & GRAFFITI

IN DÚN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN

July 2008

Dún Laoghaire based Councillor, Cormac Devlin (FF) has today welcomed the funding of €1.2 million in grants to local authorities across Ireland to help raise public education and awareness of initiatives to combate litter and graffiti. In particular, Cllr. Devlin welcomed the €50,000 allocated to Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. “This funding will allow the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council run programs aimed at raising public awareness about graffiti and litter in order to help reduce this plight in our locality”.

This grant aims to raise public awareness and promote anti-litter and anti-graffiti activity at a local level. Typically, eligible projects include local media campaigns, clean-ups, primary/secondary school competitions, exhibitions and the production of videos, posters and leaflets.

Commenting on the extent of the grant, Cllr. Devlin stated that this brings the total anti-litter awareness funding to over €7.5 million since the Litter Pollution Act was introduced in 1997 by this Fianna Fáil-led Government.

Each local authority musts select from projects put forward to them by various groups, and decide on individual allocations. There is a particular focus on involving schools, young people and voluntary initiatives by community groups. The maximum grant for a project may be up to 70% of the cost and the balance must be met by local contributions.

In announcing the grant allocations for 2008, Minister Gormley said “local authorities have contributed greatly to the modest but sustained decrease in litter pollution levels around the country, but much remains to be done”. He urged local authorities to work with community groups to tackle the litter and graffiti problems in their area: “The appearance of a community is crucial to both social and economic activity, and first impressions count. Local authorities and community groups must continue to co-operate to ensure that an area is well presented. I call on all local authorities to raise public awareness of the environmental damage caused by litter and graffiti and to develop a partnership approach with local communities to help eradicate it. The grants I am allocating will assist these efforts.”