A shredding facility used by Dublin City Council to dispose of most of the city's Christmas trees is operating without a licence, the local authority has confirmed.
The green waste recycling plant at St Anne's Park, Raheny, the largest facility of its kind in the local authority area, has expanded over the past 10 years to include a major composting operation which local residents fear is a threat to public health.
The council is facing a High Court action over the development later this month.
But it says it will continue to process waste at the site despite no official sanctioning by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The assistant city manager, Mr Philip Maguire, said the local authority would "prefer" if it had a licence by now.
However, he said, the council's application - which was initiated in May 2001 and has since been revised on a number of occasions - was still being considered by the EPA.
The council had initially sought a licence for composting and shredding at the 10-year-old facility, but last November it ceased composting operations.
Mr Maguire said that while compost remained at the site he expected it would be gone before the summer.
Local residents have complained that their prolonged exposure to emissions from the reprocessing activity is causing serious ill-health.
A High Court injunction, demanding the immediate closure of the depot, is now being sought. Among the applicants in the case are the parents of a girl who has not returned home since undergoing a lung transplant last February because of the perceived risk of infection by an airborne fungus linked to the green waste facility.
Residents have also complained about dust, noise, odour and traffic at the facility, which is at its busiest in the post-Christmas period.
"It will be going full-tilt from now until the end of February, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day," says Ms Vanda Cummins, whose home is 60 metres downwind from the site.
Mr Maguire said the council believed the allegations of health risks were "at best exaggerated", but now that composting had stopped it should ease the minds of residents.
The council was also planning to erect a building so that the shredding operation could be carried out in an enclosed area.
Residents claim this entails upgrading the depot to a "factory", thereby increasing the amount of waste processed, as well as contravening the Dublin City Development Plan, which has the area zoned "for recreational amenity and open space use".
An Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman said the council had told inspectors that it would remove all composting material from the site by June, although the EPA had yet to receive written confirmation of this.
In the meantime the EPA had decided against taking any action against the council "because they did apply for a licence once they were required to."