Closed-circuit television cameras have been installed at a number of car parks and beauty spots in rural areas of Wicklow and south Dublin in a bid to counter illegal dumping of household waste.
The cameras are being installed under a pilot project - Protecting the Uplands and Rural Environment (Pure) - which this week removed 10 tonnes of rubbish from a 500m (1,640ft) stretch of hedgerow at Kilcarra, close to the Vale of Avoca in Co Wicklow.
The locations of the cameras are not to be revealed and they may be moved depending on the level of dumping.
Pure is a collaboration of four local authorities - the councils of Dublin city, South Dublin, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown and Wicklow - as well as Coillte, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the ESB. It removed 400 tonnes of rubbish in 2007, its first year of operation.
Yesterday, it removed six tonnes of illegally dumped household rubbish - including armchairs, old cookers, beds and domestic refuse - from a site near the Meeting of the Waters in the scenic Vale of Avoca.
Pure's Ian Davis said this volume was not unusual. Common materials dumped into woodlands, ditches and hedgerows include toxic substances such as old paint tins, oils and brushes, which can cause considerable environmental harm.
Coillte has spoken out against illegal dumping in its woodland areas, car parks and scenic walks, and is keen to prosecute.
The three-year Pure pilot project is assisted by a €350,000 grant from the Department of Environment, which included the the cost of a lorry.
Mr Davis said the project had considerable success in providing information to Wicklow County Council last year to enable prosecutions.
Closed-circuit television cameras would assist in prosecutions and he added the project would be publishing the names of those convicted of illegal dumping.
