Daíl Pays Price For Illegal Dumping

The Irish Republic is to pay around €20 million to repatriate waste which was illegally dumped across the border in Northern Ireland over the past decade.

Daíl Environment Minister John Gormley announced that work is to begin on the removal and cross-border disposal of vast quantities of rubbish this month.

It is estimated that up to 250,000 tonnes of municipal and commercial waste from the Republic which was illegally dumped at 20 sites across the border will have to be removed and disposed of over the next few years.

Industry sources claim corrupt operators - often linked to paramilitaries - could have made more than €2,000 every time they illegally dumped the contents of a single lorry-load of waste.

Mr Gormley said the Government was obliged to take on the responsibility for the repatriation of the illegal waste under EU waste shipments’ legislation.

A cross-border agreement with the Stormont authorities on how to deal with the problem was reached last year, which will see the Government meeting all the costs of disposing the waste and 80% of the costs of removing it from the North - with the NI taxpayer footing the bill for the remainder of the costs.

Mr Gormley described the situation as "a legacy issue going back to a time of considerable illegal waste activity in both jurisdictions, and when the enforcement regime for waste and other environmental legislation was not as robust as it is now".

It is understood a file on the case has already been submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Under the Waste Management Act, anyone convicted of such an offence can face a possible maximum fine of €15m and a jail term of 10 years.

The Northern Ireland Environmental Agency has to date initiated more than 70 prosecutions relating to the illegal dumping of waste from the Republic.

Four NI landowners have had prison sentences imposed on them for allowing their property to be used for disposal of the material.

The initial removal and disposal of illegal waste will be centred at two sites - one at Slattinagh, Co Fermanagh and Trillick, Co Tyrone - and will see some 14,000 tonnes being brought back across the border at a cost of €2m.

Meanwhile, a Co Down scrap dealer has paid the cost of illegally dumping waste - but on a much smaller scale.

John Baird, 45, of Dublin Road, Banbridge, pleaded guilty to depositing waste without a waste management licence.

He was fined £500 plus £40 costs at Newry Magistrates' Court for storing waste illegally.

The case came after Northern Ireland Environment Agency officers visited a site adjacent to 21 Bog Road, Loughbrickland two years ago and found large amounts of end of life vehicles, car parts, tyres and scrap metal.

(BMcC/GK)