Alleged intimidation of staff carrying out examinations at one of three Co Galway sites under consideration for a "superdump" to serve south Connacht has been blamed for a month-long delay in announcing the preferred landfill site.
Consultants M.C. O'Sullivan confirmed yesterday that an announcement would not be made until the end of October on which of the three sites - Newbridge, New Inn or Ballinahistle - had been selected.
A company spokesman, Mr P.J. Rudden, said that intimidation of officials at the proposed Newbridge site, which is close to the Co Roscommon border, was a major factor in the delayed announcement. Similar examinations were being carried out at all three sites and a preferred option had yet to emerge.
Gardaí have been present at a number of site investigations over the past month following claims that staff were being intimidated and counter-claims that officials were trespassing on private lands.
"The situation has improved a bit in recent weeks, but we are still being obstructed in some quarters," Mr Rudden said. "It's been difficult at Newbridge. While the people there are as entitled as anybody else to protest, a situation arose at that site that required the gardaí to be present on a number of occasions."
Mr Rudden said that the need to open a new landfill site for Co Galway had taken on a greater urgency because of the scheduled closure of the existing site at Ballinasloe, which currently takes waste from all of Co Galway. This is due to happen in 2005.
Mr Seán Gavin, of the Newbridge Action Committee, denied that "personal intimidation" had been taking place on the site, but he said that local people were entitled to air their views when they felt that officials were trespassing on private lands.
"The last time they came out here we thought it was important that the gardaí should be present, because we believed that they were trespassing on our lands," Mr Gavin said. "Two weeks ago, they attempted to go on people's land without disinfectant. We have never broken the law during these site investigations. The only times delays have taken place were when we believed they were trespassing."