Illegal dumping in Wicklow must be investigated by Mahon Tribunal

Green Party Environment spokesperson, Ciarán Cuffe TD has expressed serious concern at Wicklow County Council's recent disclosure that its Section 55 Notice to Cement Roadstone will exempt the company from having to apply for planning permission to develop a purpose-built landfill on its site at Blessington. "It was never envisaged that the Waste Management Act 1996 would be used as a vehicle to exempt the sites of illegal dumps from the planning regulations," said Deputy Cuffe.

"If this is happening, it amounts to an abuse of the Act. I am calling for this loophole in the waste legislation to be closed immediately by Minister Roche. Failure to do this may open the door for other illegal dumps around the country to be legalised as part of a general remediation process which would bypass the normal planning process. This could mean that illegal dumpers will be deciding on the location of future landfills with local communities being deprived of any opportunity to object through the planning process."

Green Party councillor on Wicklow County Council, Deirdre de Burca, believes that the Cement Roadstone company is being allowed to operate "above the law" in County Wicklow. She points to the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions in November 2004 not to prosecute Roadstone in relation to the five illegal dumps found on its land at Blessington. "In his decision the DPP ruled that only those who 'knowingly ' allow illegal waste dumped on their land can be eligible for prosecution for these activities. I cannot understand how the DPP made that decision as it goes against the European Court of Justice ruling in the Texaco-Duvalle case in September 2004 that companies are legally liable for such activities.”

"Effectively Roadstone has avoided being legally prosecuted for the systematic and large-scale illegal dumping that occurred on its lands, " said Cllr. de Burca. "Cement Roadstone has also been facilitated by Wicklow County Council to develop a legal landfill on its lands without having to go through the planning process. The Green Party believes that serious questions need to be asked about the manner in which this, and other cases of illegal dumping in County Wicklow, have been handled.”

“There is now considerable public disquiet over the manner in which the serious environmental hazard of illegal dumping handled by Minister Dick Roche and Wicklow. County Council. The new regulations which Minister Roche has introduced will only effect illegal dumps discovered since June 2002. Extraordinarily these regulations will not cover most of the sizeable illegal dumps in Wicklow, most of which were discovered before that date. Minister Roche must be aware of the fact that he is doing a serious disservice to his constituents by not back-dating the regulations to at least 2001 when the major illegal dumps in Wicklow were discovered,” concluded de Burca.