A code of practice governing the application of a new law permitting local councils to use CCTV footage in prosecutions for illegal dumping and littering is being prepared, a Government Minister has said.
Ossian Smyth, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, said he hoped to be in position to finalise the code by the end of the summer with a view to the new law being put into effect later this year. “I want it to happen as soon as possible,” he said.
The Local Government Management Agency is drafting the code of practice for councils concerning the application of the Circular Economy Act 2022, signed into law this week by President Michael D Higgins.
The Minister, a Green Party TD for Dún Laoghaire, said the law was necessary because local authorities seeking to prosecute people for littering or dumping had encountered arguments that CCTV evidence breached their privacy.
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Following consultations with the Attorney General’s office about how to balance the right of people to live in a clean environment with privacy rights, the advice was that legislation was necessary to provide that CCTV evidence could be used once that use was proportionate to the objective, he said.
The intention is to install CCTV cameras in litter black spots, not in a “covert” but in a visible way, and to use evidence from those in prosecutions, he said. Local authorities will have to designate a particular area and subject it to a data protection assessment.
The aim is to ensure a balance between the right to live in a clean environment and the right not to be subject to mass surveillance, he said. Facial recognition or automatic number plate recognition cannot be used, and CCTV can only be used in a particular place for a specified time period.
CCTV footage of the car registration number or face of someone littering a place can be used but it will not be possible to put the footage through a computer and trace particular people, he explained.
The CCTV move should be viewed as part of a package of measures that also includes a levy to restrict the use of disposable coffee cups and initiatives regarding money back on plastic bottles and aluminium cans, the Minister suggested.
“The hope is that these measures will go a long way to end littering and help clean up the streets and the sight of fields full of cans and bottles after parties. I think everyone will support us in that.”
