Sir, - I was astonished when I read Noel Dempsey's recent remarks concerning illegal waste dumps in Co Wicklow, as quoted by your Environment Editor, Frank McDonald, (The Irish Times, December 4th).
According to Mr McDonald, during an interview on RT╔ radio last Monday Mr Dempsey expressed his "horror" at the scale and the nature of the illegal dumping recently discovered in Co Wicklow. He also apparently urged local authorities to use the "very significant powers" at their disposal to counter these illegalities.
Could this possibly be the same Minister for the Environment who has dragged his heels for four years before finally introducing draft waste collection permit regulations last month - regulations that were provided for under the 1996 Waste Management Act? How is it possible to reconcile the Minister's apparent concern about illegal dumping with his inexplicable delay in empowering local authorities to regulate and control the activities of private waste operators?
Many readers will be aware that Wicklow County Council controversially withdrew from waste collection services in January 2000, allowing private waste operators to take over these services. Given the lack of any legal permit system for waste collection, the services in County Wicklow have been completely unregulated since then.
In effect, any enterprising individual who wished to make some fast money was in a position to set up in business and to offer waste collection services to the public. Little wonder, then, that illegal dumps proliferate, and that the council finds itself involved in legal action against one of the county's major private waste collectors.
Mr Dempsey should explain why he allowed such a situation to arise. Failing that, we will have to await the eventual intervention of the European Commission and witness yet again the embarrassing spectacle of our Government being taken to task for being in breach of EU legislation, and for the wilful destruction of our environment. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr DΘirdre de B·rca, Oaklands, Greystones, Co Wicklow.