€3 million earmarked for drones to tackle illegal dumping
A new tactic involving the use of drones is to be implemented by the Government to tackle illegal dumping around the country.
Funding to the value of €3 million will be provided by Government to purchase and operate drones, according to Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Richard Bruton, who was speaking on RTE Radio 1 today (Monday, April 1).
The minister said that the funding will be made available to the Anti-Dumping Initiative.
He added that since 2017, the programme has removed some 5,000t of illegal waste from dumping blackspots around the country.
Meanwhile, one farmer recently encountered a dead sheep dumped on his land.
“It isn’t too often I get dead animals, but I get pretty much everything else ‘donated’ fairly regularly,” the farmer told AgriLand.
“It’s a lamb, an autumn lamb I’d say; no tags. It’s just annoying.
It was thrown off of some kind of high-backed lorry or something; I only copped it because there was wool on the growth by the road, so whatever he was thrown off of it was a good 4ft or 5ft up in the air anyway.
“We’re a soft target,” the farmer said.
