The Government has agreed to remove waste from the Republic which was illegally dumped in Northern Ireland thanks to a new cross-border scheme announced today.
Northern Ireland Environment Minister Sammy Wilson revealed that 20 sites north of the border have been identified as containing 250,000 tonnes of illegally dumped waste from the south.
Now Mr Wilson’s ministerial counterpart, the Green Party’s John Gormley, has agreed a scheme to see the waste removed.
In a plan which draws on EU shipment of waste safeguards, the Republic will meet the cost of disposing of the waste, plus 80 per cent of the cost of excavating it and repairing the sites.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) estimates that up to 250,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial waste from the Republic was illegally dumped at 20 sites in the north between October 2002 and the end of 2004.
Since taking over responsibility for waste management from District Councils in December 2003, the NIEA said it has been actively targeting those involved in illegal dumping through an Environmental Crime Team.
Of the prosecutions taken to date, more than 70 cases have involved waste from the south.
This has resulted in a number of fines, and in four cases prison sentences, being imposed on landowners allowing waste from the Republic to be dumped on their land.
The NIEA has also worked with the Assets Recovery Agency, now the Serious Organised Crime Agency, and confiscation orders totalling more than £800,000 (€940,400) have been made against those involved in illegal disposal of waste from the south in the north.
The first sites where work under the new plan will begin are at Slattinagh, Co Fermanagh, and near Trillick, Co Tyrone, but the agreement will also form the basis for action in respect of the other 18 sites.
Work could begin in the autumn. It is expected it could take up to five years to complete for all 20 sites.
It is estimated that the Northern Ireland contribution to the initial two priority sites will be in the order of £600,000.
PA