Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 22 Oct 1996

Vol. 470 No. 4

Adjournment Debate. - Hospital Waste Disposal.

Miss Quill

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for selecting this topic and I thank the Minister for the Environment, Deputy Howlin, for coming here.

This is another fine mess the Minister for Health, Deputy Noonan, has got the country into. Almost 100 tonnes of hazardous hospital waste is building up in hospital grounds throughout the country. This is a needless crisis which should have been anticipated and averted. In June the UK authorities implemented its national waste management plan. This gave the Departments of Health and the Environment almost five months' notice that this crisis might occur. What have they done during those five months to avert it? Can the Minister guarantee the safety of the refrigeration process used in our hospitals at present? Is the Department of Health inspectorate monitoring the situation, visiting the hospitals and reporting back to the Minister, who, in turn, will report back to this House?

Some 100 tonnes of waste is a lot of waste after only a fortnight. Such clinical waste must be stored in absolute safety. I am worried that unreliable storage could unleash a public health scare so powerful it could not be contemplated. The Government must ensure we accept responsibility for dealing with our own waste on a long-term basis. We have the technology to do it. Procedures in Cork University Hospital demonstrate that hospitals are capable of dealing with their own clinical waste on site.

Mr. Howlin

I put them there.

Miss Quill

The Minister must put them in every other hospital as well. Other hospitals must follow the example of Cork University Hospital. It has met all the most critical tests and should be a working model for all hospitals. However, what has happened in Cork has not happened anywhere else because there is no political leadership to drive it along.

The Government's policy of exporting hospital waste is short-sighted and short-term. The Government bears full and direct responsibility for this crisis. The precariousness of our policy of expecting other countries to take our policy of hospital waste ad infinitum has now been exposed. Such an arrangement is subject to factors beyond our control. The British BSE crisis made enormous additional demands on its incineration capacity. It was not, therefore, surprising that we were left high and dry.

Almost 100 tonnes of toxic clinical waste has built up since the British ban was imposed last October. Hospital managers have said they will not be able to cope with this health crisis if the ban lasts for another two weeks. The Minister has put our entire healthcare service at risk by his costly, dangerous, stop-gap arrangement. There is an onus on the Minister for Health to introduce a proper system of hospital waste disposal as a matter of urgency. Other hospitals must be given the resources to follow the example set by Cork University Hospital. The Minister must grasp the nettle. I appeal to him to put in place a safe and reliable system to deal with our hazardous waste and to eliminate the need to seek overseas disposal units.

Minister for the Environment (Mr. Howlin)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, who is unable to be present. I thank Deputy Quill for giving me the opportunity to respond to this issue. I hope I can allay her fears and answer the questions she posed. In doing so, I hope I will be able to clear up some of the misconceptions and misinformation that seem to abound at present in relation to hospital waste.

The Minister for Health is promoting a well formulated and well publicised policy to deal with healthcare waste. This policy is based on the provision in Ireland of appropriate, non-incineration treatment facilities to deal with all healthcare waste arising here. The provision of this service is already at tender stage; a contractor is likely to be appointed by December and the service is likely to be fully operational by the end of 1997. This policy is being pursued jointly with the authorities in Northern Ireland. It was originally intended that this service would be operational by the end of this year. The timescale for the project was, however, delayed arising from the agreement to develop a joint approach in association with the Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland. I am certain Deputies will readily accept the substantial benefits which attach to the development of solutions to environmental issues on an all-Ireland basis. When this service is in place next year, Ireland will be among the world leaders in having one of the most advanced and environmentally friendly health waste management systems.

The background to the current temporary problem is that, historically, the waste arising in the health services was incinerated in relatively simple hospital incinerators. These incinerators could not be brought up to modern environmental standards required for licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency. Since October 1995, when most hospital incinerators were taken out of use following the introduction of new licensing arrangements, many hospitals contracted with private waste management companies to have their healthcare risk waste processed in Britain. In June this year the UK Department of the Environment introduced a management plan for export and import of waste which banned the importation into Britain of most healthcare risk waste. UK contractors with current permits continued importing waste. Since 9 October the more stringent application of the plan has resulted in some of the contractors not being able to continue this service.

There is temporary problem in relation to the disposal of healthcare risk waste. The facilities available in Ireland are not sufficient to dispose of all the healthcare risk waste. This situation is being addressed immediately by the provision of refrigerated storage facilities on a temporary basis — probably no more than a few weeks — and the establishment of disposal routes to other countries. The Department of Health has today agreed in principle arrangements for the export of healthcare risk waste to Holland where it will be incinerated. It is anticipated that exports will commence early next month. Health agencies will be briefed tomorrow as to the arrangements. In the meantime, they should continue to store waste on site in refrigerated containers. I wish to state emphatically that these storage arrangements constitute no environmental or public health risk.

I could not support any proposal to revert to the use of the outdated incineration facilities which existed up to 1995. I fully support the actions of the Minister for Health and I am confident that the current temporary difficulties will be quickly resolved.