Local authorities spend more than £20 million annually in an attempt to combat litter problems. Up to seven authorities, however, have not produced a litter management plan two years after the introduction of legislation which requires them to.

The Minister of State for Environment, Mr Danny Wallace, told Mr Alan Dukes (FG, Kildare South) that the Government was "pursuing" these authorities but the Litter Pollution Act "does not give us the power to deal with them in the manner the deputy believes".

Mr Dukes said it was "scandalous" that the authorities had failed to produce such plans and he wanted to know what the Minister was going to do about it. Mr Wallace said a national pollution monitoring system would be introduced shortly to assess local authority litter management.

He said there were 507 on-the-spot fines in the first six months of 1998, an increase of 175 per cent. Some 3,175 court notices were issued, an increase of 39 per cent on the figures for the second half of 1997.