Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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When the Secretary General was here before Christmas when we had this debate, I made the point about the broader discussion about waste, the culture around it and how we handle it. We spoke about the illegal dumps. My county has one of those remediation sites. It was managed by Meath County Council but it has led to millions being spent on remediation. It is taxpayers' money and public money. In autumn we found an illegal site with 70,000 tonnes, which will take 15 months to remediate at a cost of €6 million. There is a wider issue here. We have heard the warnings about people just putting waste outside for it to be collected and thinking there is no consequence to these unregulated illegal collections. The consequence is €6 million of public money being spent to remediate illegal sites. These debates led to a broadening of public opinion and to us waking up to what is happening in our countryside.