asked the Minister for the Environment the plans he has for the proper integration of waste management and the recycling of waste; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
29.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Waste Management.
10.
asked the Minister for the Environment the plans he has for the provision of district heating schemes utilising recycled waste; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 29 together.
Policy in the waste management area, both at national and EC level, is to prevent the disposal of waste in a manner which would endanger human health or harm the environment and to reduce the quantities of wastes through recycling and other measures.
My Department have on a number of occasions encouraged local authorities to provide facilities for the recovery of certain wastes and will continue to do so as appropriate. Grants have been made to voluntary bodies over the past two years in support of recycling activities and a special provision of £250,000 has been provided in the budget this year to promote recycling.
My Department's concern with waste recycling arises primarily in the context of environmental protection and the operation of waste collection and disposal services. Consideration of any initiative involving recycling for energy purposes, such as district heating schemes, would primarily be a matter for the Department of Energy.
Would the Minister acknowledge that the integration of waste management includes the necessity not only for recycling schemes but for ensuring that toxic wastes are properly disposed of? In that context, what steps are the Minister's Department taking pursuant to the Byrne-Ó Cléirigh report, which was made available to this House on 8 February 1988, in the context of the recommendations made in that report with regard to the preliminary design and engineering steps that should be taken so as to assess the feasibility of an incineration plan for the disposal of toxic waste?
Secondly, what steps will his Department be taking in the future to monitor the dumping of waste, including toxic waste, in the light of the considerable concern arising from that report that there are toxic wastes being dumped in this country that are untraceable? Nobody knows where some of the toxic waste that we are producing is going. If it is not traced——
That is a very long question, Deputy Shatter.
——if it is not identified we will, in effect, have an environmental time bomb ticking away which will eventually go off, if the necessary identification of such dumping sites——
The Deputy is tending to make a speech. Please desist. This is Question Time.
Deputy Shatter uses some of the language that I have used myself.
The same degree of vagueness.
I think that he wins the prize there. I am concerned about these matters. That is why I commissioned the feasibility study to which the Deputy refers?
What is the Minister doing about that?
We are following up on that very seriously. We are talking to the various interested parties who are willing to become involved in providing such a facility. There is a lot of work to be done in that regard and as to how it should be funded. However, it is a priority and that is why I initiated it in the first place. We will obviously give it very close consideration over a period of time. Nobody wants to see toxic or haxardous waste disposed of in an improper way and we must take note of the situation which will arise in a number of years when we will have to get rid of our own waste. The subject matter of the question was recycling and I am particularly anxious that there should be more activity in that area as we are very far behind Europe. For that reason I persuaded my colleagues to allow this small amount of money in this year's budget to give a good start to those who might be interested.
Have the Minister's Department a map indicating the location of every local authority waste disposal pit and, if so, will he make it available to the House through the normal channels? In respect of such sites or dumps — to use a colloquial phrase — is there a proposal to have some form of incineration or waste management on each one to control the problem?
That matter was raised by Deputy Keating on a previous occasion. We have a list of land-fill sites functioning at the moment under the charge of local authorities although I do not know if they are pinpointed on a map.
Will the Minister make them available?
Let me think about it. I understand that the list is updated depending on when a land-fill site is filled. They are acquiring property of that kind all the time, as the Deputy knows.
Does the Minister know how long the working committee will take to issue a report? Is there any proposed plan for funds from Europe for helping us in this regard?
To what working committee is the Deputy referring?
The Minister said he had a number of people working on this aspect.
That is correct. We commissioned a feasibility study by a certain company to ascertain the quantity and type of waste and how to dispose of it. We also asked what they would recommend by way of a new incineration facility for certain types of waste.
How long will that take?
The report has been published and a copy is available in the Library.