Environment Minister Denis Naughten says his department is to spend €1m to remove stockpiles of waste tyres around Ireland.

The funding is being made available to local authorities to tackle significant dump sites.

Latest estimates suggest there are more than 750,000 tyres randomly dumped in sites around the country.

The Department of the Environment says this is a "conservative estimate".

Minister Naughten says the level of illegal dumping of waste types is a problem that needs to be met head on.

"I am targeting this funding at tyres to clean up our countryside now and to ensure that the detrimental environmental and human health effects of these dumps are dealt with as soon as possible.

"I am also supporting the introduction of a new compliance scheme to ensure that as many old tyres as possible are taken out of the system before the scheme is introduced on October 1st this year."

The minister says consumers will be reassured that their old tyres will be disposed of responsibly by a retailer when they buy new ones.

He says a two-pronged approach will deal with the problem of waste tyres.

"A large part of the reason for this waste problem is a lack of information in relation to the tyres market in Ireland.

"Therefore, I will be announcing regulations within two weeks that will introduce a full compliance scheme for tyres."

The scheme will be mandatory for any operator placing tyres on the Irish market.

All operators will also be obliged to provide data on the numbers of tyres coming on and off the market.