Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 25 Nov 1997

Vol. 483 No. 3

Written Answers. - Waste Management.

Trevor Sargent

Ceist:

37 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government if he will meet with local authorities and non-Governmental organisations to take effective action in view of legal action against Ireland by the European Commission as a result of the Government's failure to ensure the production of waste management plans. [20055/97]

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. D. Wallace)

The European Commission recently announced its decision formally to open infringement procedures with regard to 13 member states, including Ireland, for failure to adopt and-or communicate to the Commission waste plans covering general waste, hazardous waste and packaging waste. Detailed grounds for this decision in Ireland's case have not yet been notified by the Commission.

There has been no failure to produce waste management plans here. As I indicated in my reply to Questions Nos. 326 and 327 of 12 November 1997, all relevant local authorities have adopted waste and special waste plans as required under the European Communities (Waste) Regulations, 1979 and the European Communities (Toxic and Dangerous) Waste Regulations, 1982. However, these plans have not included a specific chapter on the management of packaging and packaging waste, as subsequently required under EU Directive 94/62/EC.

The Waste Management Act, 1996 introduced significant new obligations on local authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency with regard to waste management planning. The EPA is now required to make a national hazardous waste management plan and each local authority is required to make a waste management plan in respect of its functional area, which will supersede those plans made under the 1978 and 1982 Regulations. Detailed provisions in regard to the content of local waste management plans, including requirements arising from Directive 94/62/EC, are specified in the Waste Management (Planning) Regulation, 1997.

Local authorities have been fully apprised of their obligations under the 1996 Act, including those relating to waste management planning, inter alia, in the course of two national seminars conducted by my Department.

I am satisfied that very good progress is being made in the development of the new national and local waste management plans. The Environmental Protection Agency and local authorities are now initiating, carrying out, or have completed, preparatory strategy studies. Grant assistance towards the cost of these studies is available under the EU co-financed operational programme for environmental services, 1994-99.

My Department has been promoting the carrying out of such studies on an inter-authority basis. I welcome the fact that most local authorities have adopted or are adopting a regional approach which will facilitate more rational, integrated waste management planning. In all the circumstances, a meeting of the kind proposed would not serve any useful purpose.