Ms Laura Burke:

Like everything, the Kerdiffstown issue is a little bit complicated and I am going to have to be slightly careful because there is an ongoing criminal prosecution there. If I divide it into old and new, there are a lot of legacy sites around the country. The waste management plans identified around 500 legacy landfill sites around the country. The EPA's role in that area is primarily around regulation, technical advice and support to the local authorities. The Kerdiffstown site the Deputy mentioned was a legacy site, which was in operation from the 1950s, and by the 1990s it had around 2 million tonnes of waste in it. It came into the EPA then for licensing, so this is one that transferred from the old system to the new, and we licensed that site to bring it into a regulatory regime. It was operated between 2003 and 2010, when it was abandoned, and to be blunt about it, it was a very difficult site. We had numerous complaints and took numerous legal actions, including three civil actions against the site, and a criminal action through the Director of Public Prosecutions, which is ongoing. I believe there is one case in the Supreme Court and one in the High Court at the moment.