Vol. 453 No. 8
6 Mr. Martin asked the Minister for the Environment the steps, if any he will take to ensure that the handling, storage, treatment and disposal of hospital waste will come under the remit of the Environmental Protection Agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9623/95]
Hospital waste incineration is among the categories of licensable activity included in the First Schedule to the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992. Integrated pollution control licensing of new activities in this category commenced on 16 May 1994, while established activities are being brought within the Environmental Protection Agency licensing remit on a phased basis. Existing incinerators serving hospitals with more than 200 acute beds will be licensable from 1 October 1995; any remaining incinerators will be brought within the licensing system as quickly as possible thereafter.
In addition, the Waste Bill, 1995, which I recently presented to the Houses of the Oireachtas, provides for the licensing by the Environmental Protection Agency of all significant waste disposal and recovery operations, including those involving hospital waste. The Bill also provides for the preparation by the agency of a national hazardous waste management plan to address all elements of the national hazardous waste stream, including the hazardous fraction of hospital waste.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I tabled this question because residents living in the vicinity of two Cork hospitals, the University Hospital and St. Finbarr's, were required to mount a vociferous campaign to force the closure of the two incinerators servicing these hospitals which were below acceptable environmental standards and injurious to personal and public health. The local authority and the health board did not make any meaningful response to this demand until they were dragged screaming to the table of accountability in the face of public campaigns.
A body such as the Environmental Protection Agency should be responsible for the transport and disposal of all hospital waste. What is the Minister's opinion on incineration in urban areas as the method of disposal of hospital waste? Low level radioactive materials are transported from one hospital to another through the city of Cork and are buried in the grounds of St. Finbarr's Hospital. I have raised this with the registry and the various bodies as it is totally unacceptable that this should happen. Even though we are told it is non-threatening low grade radiation, the reality is that low grade radioactive materials are being transported through the city.
The Deputy will be aware that I took a direct interest in this matter when I was Minister for Health. During my time I initiated a health service waste policy. The Minister has proposed a health care waste management strategy which envisages four waste treatment centres and suggests employing new technologies involving non-incineration methods for the disposal of such waste. Use of the best technologies would involve shredding and disinfecting by microwave, something I pushed in Cork when I was Minsiter for Health. The implementation of this plan for four waste treatment centres would phase out incineration right across the country. In this context low grade nuclear contaminated waste is clothing worn at X rays and very low grade contaminated products and I do not think we should be alarmist about it. I do not foresee State aid being made available for a toxic waste incinerator and, as far as I am concerned, that is off the agenda. I will require best technologies to be used by the generators of such waste to dispose of waste on site. A residual amount, currently about one-third of total hazardous waste, is exported and that will remain an option.
Does the Minister accept it is not in the best interest of the public that radioactive material, no matter how non-threatening, should be dumped in a highly residential urban area and transported through areas of large populations? Ideally the dumps for such material should be located in remote areas where children would not be playing near it.
I am loath to comment on a particular issue of which I have no notice. However, I will ask my office to make contact with the Department of Health to voice the concerns of the Deputy. In general policy terms I want the highest environmental standards applied to every landfill site. The waste Bill I published in the past couple of weeks will give legislative effect to that imperative.
I welcome the Minister's response but it is very costly to put various waste management strategies in place. In this year alone it will cost the Southern Health Board £600,000 to microwave the waste from the regional hospital. If you apply that across the country the total cost is in the region of £10 million. Obviously the Minister envisaged that this development would involve an extra cost but has he put funding in place to alleviate the cashflow difficulties that will ensue from such a policy? There are two different types of waste, general hospital waste and what is loosely termed toxic waste. In Cork the toxic waste falls within the guidelines but there is major public concern about this waste being transported through the city. I think this requires the Minister's immediate attention and I ask him to ensure that an effort is made to find a more suitable location to dispose of this waste?
I will not take upon myself the funding of the health services — I did that for two years, reasonably effectively.
With the tax amnesty money.
I am not responsible for funding the health services. The waste management strategy is a matter for the Minister for Health who published it and is its driving force.
But without the funding.
My responsibility, and the responsibility of the House, is to provide an environmentally strong legislative framework to ensure best practice. That is what I am determined to do. There will be a high degree of pressure on me to ensure that I do that. We have published the waste Bill and I will be as strong a force behind it as I can. When it is in place all agencies, statutory, local authority or private, must comply with the stringent environmental standards that we demand. I make no apology for setting very high standards.
Is the Minister's specific intention that incineration would not be permitted as a means of disposal of hospital waste when it comes to licensing in October of this year? He mentioned that this would apply to hospitals with more than 200 acute beds but does he accept that smaller hospitals with fewer beds are very short of finance to upgrade waste management equipment and will continue to incinerate in a hazardous manner. Does the Minister intend to introduce licensing for the smaller hospitals having put the licences for the larger hospitals in place? Can he indicate how soon after October this might happen?
There are three elements to the strategy: (1) Under the existing legislative framework, the Environment Protection Act, the operable date for hospitals with more than 200 beds is October this year. (2) In parallel with that I envisage that by October we will be well advanced in enacting the waste Bill and when it is enacted I will bring in regulations to require all waste to be licensed under the Environmental Protection Agency. (3) Depending on which of the two legislative measures are in place at the time I will determine whether the Environmental Protection Act should be enforced to broaden the remit to include all hospitals or the new waste Bill will then be in place to deal effectively with that contingency. In the meanwhile there is a Department of Health waste management strategy with the personal imprimatur of the Minister for Health. I outlined that the strategy is to have designated management systems using the best available technology, excluding incineration.
I welcome the Minister's remarks. There is a proposal to take all the hospital waste in the Leinster area and burn it in the middle of Ringsend. Dublin Corporation refused permission for this proposal and it is now before An Bord Pleanála. Obviously a private company would not be putting all this money into the venture unless it had got assurances from various hospitals that it will process their waste. Will the Department of the Environment and the Department of Health submit an appeal to An Bord Pleanála? There is huge concern locally that all this waste will be burned within a ten mile radius of one million people and within a three mile radius of 300,000 people, which seems to fly in the face of the policies of the Ministers for the Environment and Health.
I note the Deputy's remarks but it would be improper for me to comment on an appeal currently before An Bord Pleanála.
If it is the Minister's policy that the waste should not be disposed of by incineration he should make that known to An Bord Pleanála because it would be influenced by such a policy decision. The microwaving technique is now being used for waste treatment in hospitals, Is the Minister satisfied that it is safe and reduces risk to a minimum?
Not only would it be improper but I am statutorily barred from making comments on an appeal to be decided by a statutory agency, An Bord Pleanála. The general policy statement relates to the Department's policy on hospital waste. There is no definitive bar on incineration as a method for dealing with general waste, and each of these will have to be discussed on their own merits when any proposal is finalised. For the information of Deputies, incineration is a very commonly used method of waste management in some of the more environmentally sensitive countries. In cities like Copenhagen or Vienna incineration is the main method of disposing of domestic waste. I want best international practice and the highest environmental standards. We will deal with proposals as they arise and drive the recycling strategy in tandem with the Waste Bill strategy. I am precluded from making any other comment.
What is the Department's policy in regard to staff training and the track record and viability of companies who want to run incinerators?
All of that will be taken into account in the licensing regime that will be put in place when the Waste Bill is enacted. The Environmental Protection Agency will have to satisfy itself that all proper standards and facilities are in place and, presumably, staff training will be a component in their considerations.
