12 December 2006

Environment

 Waste Shipments

Ciarán Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of waste shipment verifications carried out by each local authority, in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No. 259/93 of 1 February 1993, on the supervision and control of waste within, into and out of the European Community; and the number of irregularities uncovered for each of the years since 2000 to date in 2006.

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche): 

In Ireland, the thirty four county and city councils are the designated statutory competent authorities in respect of the export of waste from the State under Council Regulation (EEC) No. 259/93, the Waste Shipment Regulation. My Department does not compile data in regard to their specific enforcement activities, but is aware that verification of waste destinations is carried out by individual authorities. Ireland is actively engaged within the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), an informal network of environmental enforcement authorities, is chair of the IMPEL TFS cluster of authorities for 2006/2007 and has participated in two verification of waste destination projects to date and will be participating in further enforcement projects in 2007. The verification projects already carried out, and which have involved five local authorities during 2005 and 2006, have shown that all of the waste shipments checked have been recovered or disposed of at the country of destination in accordance with the required procedures.