Removing waste dumped illegally in North to cost Government €20m

THE Government is set to spend in excess of €20 million to repatriate waste which was illegally dumped in the North over the past decade.

Environment Minister John Gormley has 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 could have made more than €2,000 every time they illegally dumped the contents of a single lorry-load of waste.

Much of the waste was transported illegally across the border in the early part of the decade by unlicensed operators with suspected links to paramilitary organisations.

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 North’s 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.

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”.

Mr Gormley said he hoped excavations at the first sites where waste is due to be removed will provide evidence to help pursue those responsible for environmental crime.

It is understood a file on the case has already been submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The EPA and gardaí are also continuing to investigate other incidents of illegal dumping in conjunction with their counterparts in the North.

However, government sources have indicated that successful criminal prosecutions of the people responsible for the illegal dumping are unlikely given the length of the time since the material was first placed in the unauthorised landfill sites.

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 Ulster 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.

A spokesman for Mr Gormley said the there was no specific timeframe for the clean-up of the remaining 18 sites.

Overall, it is estimated by the industry that between 500,000 and 750,000 tonnes of waste is disposed of illegally here each year – around 10% of the total.