Mountain of rubbish must be scaled down

IT is a damning indictment of Ireland’s failure to manage its growing mountain of waste that it required a name-and-shame seminar to elicit news that a three-year-old Brussels directive aimed at cleaning up landfill sites has at long last been signed

Following a threat by the European Commission to take legal action over Ireland's foot-dragging, Environment Minister Martin Cullen announced the directive has finally been transposed into law. Since June, official sites require a licence under the 1999 protocol designed to prevent poorly managed landfills polluting soil and water, creating air emissions and contaminating ground water.

It is heartening to learn the Government is now fully compliant with EU law. But precisely what this means is far from clear. It is one thing to adopt the rules but an entirely different matter to ensure the regulations are implemented.