The national hazardous waste management plan (NHWMP) relates to the period 2001-2006. It makes recommendations in respect of four main areas: implementation of a national hazardous waste prevention programme; improved measures for the collection of hazardous wastes from households, small and medium enterprises, agriculture and other sources of "unreported" hazardous wastes; provision of requisite infrastructure to attain national self-sufficiency in relation to the recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes; and identification, risk assessment and, where necessary, remediation of sites where hazardous wastes were disposed of in the past.
Under section 26 of the Waste Management Act, 1996, relevant public authorities are required to have regard to the plan and, where they consider it appropriate to do so, to take measures to implement or otherwise give effect to, recommendations in the plan. The plan recommended the establishment of an implementation committee to co-ordinate its overall implementation.
In my Department's policy statement Preventing and Recycling Waste – Delivering Change, which was published earlier this year, a range of organisational and policy initiatives in support of more effective waste management was outlined. These will include the establishment of a core prevention team within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement a major national waste prevention programme, that will encompass both hazardous and non-hazardous waste and focus on both the elimination of waste from manufacturing and securing improvements in the environmental performance of products.
I intend also to establish a committee to oversee the implementation of the non-prevention aspects of the NHWMP, and I will shortly invite a range of business, agricultural and environmental organisations, as well as relevant Departments and State agencies, to nominate representatives to participate on this committee.
Improved collection and reception services for hazardous waste from household and commercial sources are already being put in place by local authorities.
With regard to infrastructure, the plan identifies a requirement for landfill and thermal treatment capacity for hazardous waste requiring disposal, so as to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce reliance on export outlets. A private company has announced proposals to develop a hazardous waste incineration facility at Ringaskiddy, County Cork. As an exceptional measure, having regard to the "polluter pays" principle, grant assistance is available under the NDP to support the provision of landfill capacity for hazardous wastes, and there are indications of interest from the private sector in the development of such capacity.