Wicklow County Council has argued before the High Court that the failure to introduce regulations on waste collection by private operators does not mean the collectors are acting illegally.
Mr Dermot Flanagan SC, for the council, yesterday said the Minister for the Environment was planning to introduce an authorisation system for waste collection in the very near future.
He said there was no formal licensing at present but insisted that the private collectors were "subject to authorisation" within the general ambit of the Waste Management Act, 1996.
He agreed permits were needed for the disposal and recovery of waste but insisted waste collection did not need a permit per se.
Mr Flanagan was making submissions in the legal challenge by a Wicklow Green Party councillor, Ms Deirdre de Burca, to the WCC decision to privatise waste collection services in its area. She claimed the council had given the job to private operators who were not authorised to carry it out.
Mr Flanagan contended that a 1993 EU directive on waste management gave member-states an option on bringing it into domestic law. He argued that the directive envisaged a situation where waste collection might be subject to licensing but not immediately.
Mr Justice O Caoimh said the directive appeared to suggest there should be some form of authorisation to comply with the directive, and this could not be long-fingered. Member-states were required to bring the directive into national law not later than October 17th, 1993.
Mr Flanagan said it had not been long-fingered. If the council had been obliged under an EU directive to prepare a waste management plan, and had not done so for 20 years, every local authority was in the same position.
Mr Justice O Caoimh said: "If that is the case, we as a nation can't be very proud of that." The action continues today.