John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday evening an email was circulated by the chief executive officer of Wicklow County Council to county councillors and the five Deputies for County Wicklow informing them of a decision that had already been made and signed off on. It will mean that the waste intake at the Ballynagran landfill site in County Wicklow will be increased to 190,000 tonnes. That represents an additional 40,000 tonnes above the maximum allowed under the planning conditions set out in the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, waste licence. The EPA has agreed to this change and I am sure the Minister signed off on it also. The EPA has granted technical amendments to the licence for the Ballynagran landfill site. This has come about because the landfill site at Drehid, County Kildare has exceeded its annual EPA licence capacity. Clearly, this emergency was seen coming, but there was a failure to put in place any plan to deal with it. County Wicklow will now become the dumping ground of the State because of this failure. Was the Minister aware of the emergency arising in County Kildare? If so, when exactly was he made aware of it? Who contacted him and when was he first contacted?

We know that the Ballynagran landfill site is already rated by the EPA as the worst dump in the State. Is the Minister aware of this fact? In 2013 the EPA received over 140 official complaints about the Ballynagran landfill site, the highest number of complaints associated with any landfill site in the State at that stage. In total, there were 500. This year a substantial number of official complaints have been lodged with the EPA. A community liaison committee was established under a planning condition such was the concern and opposition to the dump when it was first planned a number of years ago. That committee was not consulted during the decision-making process. In fact, there was no consultation whatsoever with the community or elected representatives. This decision has been railroaded through with no consultation whatsoever. Is the Minister aware of the ongoing concerns surrounding the Ballynagran landfill site and the additional intake of 40,000 tonnes?

I drove to the site yesterday evening and noted in driving by that the smell was totally unbearable. At this time of the year, winter, one can imagine what it is like for locals living there 365 days a year. Is the Minister aware that a family have been forced out of their own home because of the odours? They were forced out of their home last December and have been unable to return to it for nearly a full year. Is the Minister aware of the potential legal cases and the legal cases that have been filed against the Ballynagran landfill site? Owing to the sheer lack of planning and absolute incompetence, emergency legislation was rammed through over the heads of the community, in the process ignoring their legitimate concerns. That was totally wrong and avoidable.

In its correspondence Wicklow County Council seems to be reliant on the view that the Poolbeg site will potentially open at some point next year. However, this gives little or no comfort to the locals living in the vicinity of the Ballynagran landfill site. These are serious questions and I urge the Minister to answer them for the people of County Wicklow, particularly those who must live in Ballynagran daily, even without the additional 40,000 tonnes of waste that will be taken into the landfill site.

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