John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

A risk assessment has been carried out and a code of practice produced. In 2007, the Office of Environmental Enforcement published a code of practice for environmental risk assessments of unregulated waste disposal sites. The code sets out a risk-based procedure that should be applied to sites identified in accordance with sections 22(7)(h) and 26(2)(c) of the Waste Management Act 1996. The code provides the framework to establish the intrinsic risk posed by old and previously unregulated sites.

The intention is to make regulations that would provide a mechanism for the remediation of old municipal waste disposal sites that operated between 1977 and 1996. These regulations will be completed shortly and will apply to an estimated 300 sites, which take priority over the other estimated 2,300 commercial sites where the holder of the waste, defined in legislation as the waste's producer or the natural or legal person in possession of it, has the responsibility not to "hold, transport, recover or dispose of waste in a manner that causes or is likely to cause environmental pollution". This duty is set out in section 32 of the Act.

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