James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I respectfully suggest that although I wholeheartedly support opportunities for segregation, recycling and reuse, as I am sure my constituents do, that will not address the 360,000 tonnes of waste hammering down the road at full speed today, tomorrow or over the next year, which is the immediate problem. The Minister has suggested that there are clear strategies, policies and actions to address the issue of waste. In this case they are not working.

I referred to an e-mail I received from An Bord Pleanála earlier this year when I highlighted this issue directly with the agency. It referred to section 56 of the Waste Management Act being invoked to enable the simultaneous invocation by multiple local authorities of emergency powers to enable landfill to ramp up immediately, and that this was to address a potential shortfall in capacity nationally and the fact that there was a backlog and stockpiling of waste at licensed and permitted sites. Something is going wrong.

There would not be a great deal of confidence in the EPA in Kildare, in particular in Kildare North. Multiple complaints were made to the EPA about the landfill at Kerdiffstown over a number of years, culminating in a fire at the site which could be seen from the nearby N7. The High Court issued €10 million in fines, the highest fines ever imposed following a waste management conviction. With respect to the EPA, we do not have much confidence in it to deal with this issue.

There is an immediate issue, as I have said. It appears, and from what the Minister said it is not denied or confirmed, that multiple waste from the greater Dublin area is involved. According to the Minister, there are four landfills in the country and this appears to be the one in closest proximity to Dublin. As I said at the outset, it seems unfair and disproportionate to concentrate waste in one rural location on the perimeter of Dublin. I call on the Minister to take action to examine the infrastructure and planning needs, and address with the EPA and lead authorities the waste management plan because the residents cannot continue with this situation. It is making their lives a nightmare on a daily basis.

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