Those responsible for the illegal dumping of hospital waste in Co Wicklow are believed to be rogue skip operators, it has emerged.
Skip owners are contracted by hospitals to dispose of general hospital waste, including surplus food, unused dressings and decontaminated material. They are expected to take this waste to a licensed landfill but it is understood they are disposing of it illegally to avoid paying charges.
Skip operators are licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but it is a sector of the waste industry difficult to police.
A Dublin-based inspector with the EPA, Mr Kevin McDonnell, said most of the problems arising with the illegal dumping of hospital waste were a result of waste contractors, such as skip owners, operating outside their licences.
He said the companies in the State specialising in the disposal of clinical waste from the healthcare sector, which would include gloves, swabs and bandages, were always found to be compliant with their licences.
A joint waste management board was set up in 1996 to look at the disposal of hospital waste north and south of the Border. Two years later, a £30 million contract was awarded to a Dublin firm for the management of clinical waste from all publicly-funded hospitals and healthcare institutions on the island for 10 years. The contract went to Sterile Technologies Ireland Ltd (STI).
Mr McDonnell said 95 per cent of all hospital waste in the State, from dressings to swabs and gloves, went to STI and another Dublin-based healthcare waste disposal company called Ecosafe. Both are licensed by the EPA and have never been prosecuted. He said most private hospitals also used these companies.
"We don't have a problem with either company. Both were audited quite recently and we would be pleased with their performance," he said.
He added that hospitals, meanwhile, sent waste tissue, dangerous chemicals, pharmaceuticals and radioactive material abroad for incineration.
An issue which has arisen for hospitals arising out of illegal dumping of what is believed to be less hazardous hospital waste is how it segregates its waste and how, if reports are accurate, confidential medical reports found their way into skips.
The EPA has confirmed it is providing "advice and assistance" to Wicklow County Council, which is investigating the most recent discovery of what appears to be hospital waste at a quarry near Baltinglass earlier this week.