John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Deputy is talking about hazardous waste facilities. This is a matter for the EPA and for the contractor, whichever company that may be. As I outlined, the EPA has done extensive work on this. The National Hazardous Waste Management Plan 2008-2012 is a statutory document prepared by the EPA in accordance with the Waste Management Acts 1996-2008. It also satisfies the Hazardous Waste Directive, which requires member states to draw up plans for hazardous waste and sets out priority actions which should be taken during the period of the plan on the prevention of hazardous waste, improved collection rates of certain categories of hazardous waste, the steps required to improve Ireland's self sufficiency in hazardous waste management and the management of certain legacy hazardous waste, such as contaminated soil. I have been doing that in the context of Haulbowline. Huge amounts of money have been invested in the remediation of that site.

The quantity of hazardous waste generated in 2006 was 284,000 tonnes, which is an 8% decrease since 2004. Some 31% of this waste was treated on site of generation at EPA/IPPC licensed facilities. This waste was subject, in various forms, to incineration, solvent recycling, landfill and use as a fuel. A further 21% was treated off site in Ireland by a network of authorised hazardous waste treatment facilities and 48% of it was exported for treatment abroad, mostly for thermal treatment but also for metal recovery, solvent recovery and landfill.

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