As the first two items relate to illegal dumping and are being taken together, each Deputy will have five minutes and the Minister will have ten minutes to reply.
Adjournment Debate. - Illegal Dumping.
I welcome the opportunity to raise the issue of the nature, extent and impact of illegal dumping in County Wicklow which is a source of grave concern for people living in my constituency. Today's newspapers carry reports of yet another dump discovered in the county, which appears to contain as many as 2,000 drums of hazardous or toxic commercial acids, including sulphuric acid. The nature of the dumping is known. It includes hazardous waste matter drawn from acute hospitals in Dublin as well as this potentially toxic waste. The extent of it stretches credulity, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes dumped in a highly organised manner in quarries and sites located close to a main road. The possible impact of this illegal activity is devastating. The danger to public health is immediate, with watercourses in the area endangered and even the lives of workers investigating these dumps being put at risk because of their instability.
The Minister for the Environment and Local Government saw for himself the extent of this criminal activity when he made a visit to the area last week, yet no definite policy or strategy has emerged since. No doubt he knows that Wicklow County Council is doing its best to deal with this scandal but he must also be aware that what has happened is the result of highly organised, highly lucrative activity which is now so seriously regarded by society as a crime that, if found guilty, such a criminal can be fined up to £10 million or imprisoned for ten years. Yet in the case of the most extensive, dangerous and lucrative dumping discovered so far, the Garda has not yet been called in to investigate. The Minister has indicated that the Criminal Assets Bureau should have a role. A Department official has been quoted as saying that they wanted the CAB to come in and look at the whole area. Yet nobody, neither the Minister nor the local authority, has called in the Garda. Why?
If a woman steals a pair of tights from Dunnes Stores the police are called in, yet when organised groups of people, some of whom are being linked with major criminals in Dublin, break the law systematically for huge profits the Garda are not called. Why? The money being made by illegal dumping is on a par with the money being made from major drug dealing. Why have not company records been seized, interrogations carried out and bank records been inspected? Why have the full rigours of a criminal investigation not been carried out by those who have the power to do so? The profits made are unimaginable and we may not ever know the real figure. This money could be resting securely in an offshore account while local authority officials are trudging their way to the courts.
The first discovery was made on 22 October 2001 yet nobody has been charged for the dumping, whether for an indictable offence or not. There is one man who has been convicted on a totally unrelated incident and I understand that he is out on appeal at the moment. Considerable costs have been accrued by the county council and more will follow for legal action. The clean-up will cost millions of pounds. Yet even after his visit to west Wicklow the Minister was unable to give any comfort to the county council. He did not say that these costs would be carried by his Department or that it would make any contribution while due legal process took its course. This is a disturbing rebuff to a local authority that is struggling to cope with a situation that is unprecedented both in its scale and in its criminality.
I thank you for affording me the opportunity to make a contribution on this very serious issue. For several weeks now the subject of illegal dumping has occupied centre stage in County Wicklow and all the indications are that it will continue to do so for some time. It is a problem that is not unique to County Wicklow and in time, I regret to say, right around the country many more illegal dumps will be uncovered. The locations of these are known to many people and it is incumbent on those who have the knowledge to come forward and give it to the relevant local authority so that the extent of this problem can be gauged and addressed.
There is universal condemnation of illegal dumping, particularly when it contains hazardous waste and may pose a threat to the water supply. While I agree that waste management is the direct responsibility of local authorities, we must ask why this situation has arisen. Waste should be relatively easy to track; it is bulky, it smells and it has to go somewhere. Yet it appears that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste have been illegally dumped in our countryside. Our present policy has clearly failed and the Minister must address its shortcomings. If local authorities are not doing their work they should be brought to task. Much speculation has appeared in the media in recent days about additional finds in Country Wicklow and the Minister, having visited the county, is well aware of the difficulties being encountered.
It is several weeks since the discovery of the first site but the waste remains unmoved from the site at Coolnamadra. This is totally unacceptable and the Minister should use his office to deal with this. The county manager and council are using all the resources at their disposal to deal with the problem but they have limited manpower and a limited budget. If we are really serious about cleaning up this mess several suspected illegal dumps should be inspected concurrently instead of the present method of investigating one at a time. If we keep up the present rate of progress it will be years before we can say that the problem has been dealt with. Let the indignation be replaced by action. We urgently need additional resources now and I hope that the Minister will have some good news for me in his response.
At this stage I believe no local authority is in a position to say there is no illegal dump in its backyard or under its control nor can it say with confidence that its authorised landfills contain no hazardous waste. Waste management is a problem easily identified and easier still to condemn, but generally short on solutions. One-line soundbites will not solve this. There must be political will at local and national level and the Minister should lead the way. If the present structures do not work they should be changed. However, no matter what route is taken, adequate resources and investment are required.
In a nutshell, we have a problem in Wicklow. It is not the only county and it will not be the only county where this has occurred. There is a lot of condemnation, but we want to see some action. The council is stretched to the limit. We have more than 90 suspected landfills; some commentators say 200, some say more. Only two have actually been uncovered; one is being dealt with and another is in the process. There are many others out there and we need resources. We do not want to deal with them in a drip, drip, drip fashion. If the problem is to be taken seriously the resources should be provided.
I thank Deputies McManus and Timmins for raising this matter in the House. I share their concerns about the ongoing disclosures of illegal dumping activity in Wicklow. The Government's position on this issue is clear. Unauthorised dumping of waste is both illegal and grossly irresponsible. Dumping of clinical waste or other potentially hazardous wastes is, because of its nature, particularly reprehensible. The full rigours of the law should apply to anyone found guilty of such activity.
The functions of waste regulation and enforcement have been assigned under the Waste Management Act, 1996, to local authorities or for the licensing of major waste activities, to the Environmental Protection Agency. Local authorities must deploy the necessary resources to ensure that they effectively oversee waste movements and activities within their functional areas and take determined action, utilising the very significant powers and remedies available to them, to counter unauthorised activity. The Minister for the Environment and Local Government has no direct function in these matters.
I am unable to comment on the specifics of the recent cases. In any event, it would be inappropriate to prejudge the outcome of the investigations of Wicklow County Council and any actions aris ing from these. To facilitate effective enforcement local authorities have significant powers to enter and inspect lands and premises and to board vehicles. There are very severe penalties available under the Waste Management Act, 1996, for illegal dumping activity. A person guilty of such an offence would be liable upon conviction or indictment to a fine of up to £10 million and/or up to ten years in prison. The Minister and I are anxious that where a local authority uncovers evidence of systematic and large scale dumping it should be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions to be prosecuted as the serious offence that it is, rather than dealt with as a summary offence. To that end my Department has consulted the Office of the DPP to prepare guidance for local authorities regarding relevant procedures and preparation of evidence.
It should be noted that a landowner who is complicit in unauthorised dumping could also be liable to prosecution, in addition to the person who actually carried out such dumping. Furthermore, a landowner could be liable for the costs of removing and properly disposing of the wastes concerned. In addition, my Department has formally requested the Criminal Assets Bureau to consider whether, in the public interest, it should investigate the possibility of systematic and illegal profiteering being involved in unauthorised waste dumping.
Is it possible for me to ask the Minister of State to give way to me.
There is no provision for any question or answer after the reply has been made.
The law has also been strengthened in relation to the collection and movement of waste. The recent Waste Management (Collection Permit) Regulations, 2001, will facilitate better control of waste movements and should prove valuable in combating illegal dumping of waste. Under these regulations, all commercial collectors of waste have been obliged to apply to local authorities for waste collection permits. Under the new regulations, local authorities must require permit holders to ensure that the waste collected is transferred to a waste facility that has been licensed by the EPA or holds a permit from the relevant local authority. The system also provides for a documentation and tracking system for the movement of all wastes. A local authority would be entitled to refuse to grant a collection permit, or to revoke one that had been granted, in the event that an applicant being found guilty of any one of a number of specified waste offences.
As regards the question of additional resources, the introduction of the proposed landfill levy will generate significant revenues for the new environment fund. The Minister, Deputy Dempsey, intends to direct much of this funding to support local authority enforcement initiatives in respect of unauthorised waste activities.
The Waste Management Act 1996 already provides for the recovery of clean-up costs. Where a local authority takes measures to prevent or limit environmental pollution caused by the holding, recovery or disposal of waste, it may recover the costs of such measures from such persons as the courts determine to be persons whose acts or omissions necessitated such measures.
Where a person has held, recovered or disposed of waste in a manner that is causing or has caused environmental pollution, it is also open to a local authority to seek a court order requiring that person, among other things, to mitigate or remedy any effects of the said activity.
In the first instance, a local authority should seek to recover clean-up and remediation costs arising from unauthorised dumping activities using these available remedies.
Without wishing to diminish the seriousness of the unauthorised dumping cases currently known, or the possibility that other such cases will emerge, there has been an element of misinformation and speculation in some reports.
For instance, it has been stated that some 2,000 sites nationally have been identified as potentially contaminated by hazardous waste. In fact, an EPA desktop study indicated that about 2,000 sites exist in Ireland that may, because of current or historical activities associated with them, be contaminated.
These would largely comprise sites where certain trade and industrial activities took place, e.g. gasworks or tanneries. Most of these sites did not involve waste disposal per se. The EPA estimates that about 490 sites, including 84 operational facilities, may have been used for the disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes.
Overall, I am satisfied that Wicklow County Council and other local authorities pursuing cases of illegal dumping fully appreciate the seriousness of the cases in question. I am confident they will be rigorously pursued to determine the identities of those responsible, and that effective action will be taken.