Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has called for "immediate action" to be taken against three local authorities who were named by the EPA as breaching waste regulations.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Office for Environmental Enforcement (OEE) said Waterford City Council was running composting facilities without authorisation, and South Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown Council were running a waste-compaction station without a licence.
"I expect immediate action by the OEE concerning these authorities," Mr Roche said in a statement. "No facility should be allowed to operate outside the law and the OEE should seek to end this situation now.
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"No facility should be allowed to operate outside the law" |
"These facilities must be regularised or closed down. Backyard burning of waste, illegal fly-tipping [the dumping of van-loads of rubbish] and use of illegal waste collectors also need to be urgently targeted."
A spokeswoman for Waterford City Council said its well publicised composting facility which opened last year, was diverting waste from landfill and formed part of its strategy to recycle biodegradable waste.
She said that while the planning process for the €3.5 million "state-of-the-art facility" on the Green Road had been observed, an administrative oversight meant it had not been registered with the EPA.
She said the facility had been inspected by the EPA and the Department of Agriculture and that the process of registration was now in train.
South Dublin Co Co said its facility at Grange - between Clondalkin and Lucan - was temporary and is likely to close by the end of the year. It was used because of the closure of a recycling depot in Clontarf which led to a facility in Lucan being overburdened.
The council said it has been consulting with a number of bodies including the EPA in an effort to come up with new licenced location for its green waste.
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown said it was unaware that it neded a licence for sending its street sweepings to landfill and has now applied for one.
Today's report also concluded that large-scale illegal dumping of the type uncovered in Co Wicklow in recent years is no longer taking place. It also found that illegal cross-Border movement of waste "has reduced significantly" and there was "no evidence of significant mismanagement of hazardous waste".
Entitled The Nature and Extent of Unauthorised Waste in Ireland, the report is the first comprehensive statement of illegal waste-handling in the Republic, and the first major report of the OEE.
It lists 25 unauthorised dumps across the State and 15 unauthorised waste-handling facilities - three of which were operated by the local authorities.
However, the OEE has conceded that many more (initially unauthorised) dumps that were discovered and subsequently authorised - including the large-scale dump at The Ballast Pit in Co Kildare and Coolamadra in Co Wicklow - have been omitted from the list.
The list also omits 18 unauthorised dumps that were the subject of judgment against Ireland by the European Court of Justice. A further seven before the court are also omitted from the list of 25.
The OEE found that small-time waste-collectors continued to be a problem in more than 50 per cent of local authorities. It also noted the presence of organised fly-tipping on the edges of major cities such as Dublin, Galway and Limerick.
Concern was also expressed that more than one-fifth of all households did not have, or were not availing of, a waste-collection service in 2003. This could amount to 270,000 tonnes of waste in any one year.
Mr Roche said he was "concerned" there is no information on where the waste from up to 21 per cent of households is ending up.
"I have asked my Department to pursue this aspect with the EPA and the local authorities."