Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Without wishing to be disrespectful to the Minister of State, Deputy Andrews, I regret that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has not taken the trouble to come into the House to address this matter.

On 25 January, the members of Wicklow County Council held a special meeting to discuss a motion calling on the Minister to instigate a public inquiry into the performance of the council into the granting of a waste licence relating to a borrow pit on lands belonging to the Byrne family of Ballybeg, near Rathnew, County Wicklow. The motion was overwhelming supported and the request has been forwarded to this Minister for Environment who has the statutory authority to instigate such a public enquiry.

I am asking him in the interest of the public good and of the county council itself that this be done without delay. While the events took place some time ago, no appropriate inquiry has ever been held despite the fact that the Byrne family were clearly not treated properly and were put at risk of losing a contract worth almost €0.5 million.

The Byrne family had a contractual arrangement with the Morris Sisk Consortium that was subject to the granting of a waste licence on the land. The council granted the licence. Subsequently, that licence was shredded and its existence denied. However, the Byrne family discovered that a copy of the licence had been lodged with the EPA. As a consequence, Councillor George Jones of Fine Gael made a strong case on their behalf and the licence was ultimately granted. Ever since the circumstances of the events have been the subject of controversy.

Councillor Jones sought an inquiry by writing to Deputy Martin Cullen, the then Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and then to Deputy Dick Roche, who took over that position. Inexplicably, Deputy Roche gave the task of investigation to the Local Government Audit Service, a body clearly not equipped in law to carry out the indepth inquiry into the events. Indeed, in his letter to Councillor Jones, he pointed out that the Local Government Financial Provisions Act 1997 does not allow for the public or members to make submissions to such a process.

To this day Councillor Jones has never been interviewed although his was a pivotal role in ensuring that the Byrne family were treated properly, albeit belatedly, by Wicklow County Council. He pursued every avenue open to him without satisfaction. The point has been made by him and other public representatives that not only should the performance of Wicklow County Council be investigated but so too should there be scrutiny of the role of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government under two different Ministers, Deputies Cullen and Roche.

Councillor Jones wrote to the co-manager with a series of questions to be answered. He wrote that the whole saga "has very serious implications in our service and treatment of our customers/public; the Council's relationship with private contractors and a lack of accountability to elected members." To dismiss the events as simply an administrative error is totally inadequate when set against the shredding of documents, the failure to hold onto background information and lack of accountability that characterizes this issue to this day.

I urge the Minister of State to talk to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, since we will not be able to do so, and impress on him the importance of a proper public inquiry. The Minister is very quick to criticise councils he does not agree with. In this instance he is being asked by members of a council to investigate the record and he has a duty to follow up on that request.

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