Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, increased the national funding for measures to prevent and respond to illegal dumping from €2 million in 2018 to €3 million this year. Applications are open for this fund, which is supposed to focus on prevention, education, awareness, abatement and enforcement. However, €3 million is a tiny sum in the context of this massive problem. Most of it could be used just to address the very serious problem in the constituency of Dublin Bay North, which the Minster and I share.

In the past few years, I have received an increasing number of complaints from constituents who are very upset by the sheer volume of illegal dumping and littering across the north fringe of Dublin Bay North, which includes the south fringe of Fingal. These include bitter complaints from civic-minded constituents and environmental enhancement groups at repeated dumping and serious littering on the R139 or N32, which is a gateway to Dublin for visitors arriving at Dublin Airport. Further east, residents of the new north fringe estates are also aghast at the amount of littering and dumping, especially on open spaces that are undergoing or awaiting development.

As the Minister will be aware, the most distressed of our constituents are those who have watched with horror as a tsunami of rubbish and clay in a huge illegal dumping operation has moved steadily across an amenity open space towards their homes in the past 18 months or two years. An adjacent city park much loved by local residents, sports teams and Saturday runners is also steadily being littered and engulfed by this huge illegal dump. At regular local meetings and meetings of Dublin City Council and the north central joint policing committee, the growing presence of this illegal dump has been described as a blatant commercial operation which the authorities seem powerless to stop and remove from our area. As the Minister knows, civic enhancement groups are, thankfully, highly active across our constituency. In telephone calls and emails to my office and on visits to my information clinics, they express exasperation that these anti-social and criminal behaviours are not being brought to an immediate end. They feel they are being badly let down by the Minister, who is a Deputy for the area, the management of Dublin City Council and he Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan.

It is clear that the Waste Management Act 1996 and the Waste Management (Licensing) Regulations 1997 would never permit the creation of a commercial dump adjacent to family homes, precious amenity open spaces and an important Dublin city park. Despite this, it seems that no fundamental measures have been taken to tackle this outrage and restore the lands in question. The problem is greatly exacerbated by the fact that a number of small housing estates near the location do not have a weekly waste collection service. I note moves recently by Laois County Council and other county councils to ensure that all households are accountable for their residual waste after recycling. We would all welcome similar measures in our localities. It is astonishing that the Dublin City Council manager, Mr. Owen Keegan, and the council's housing manager, Mr. Brendan Kenny, do not ensure there is a bin collection service from the city in the small areas to which I refer. Surely all households have the right to a waste management collection to encourage the avoidance of litter and illegal disposal of waste. The absence of such a regular waste collection service cannot be used as an excuse and should not be exploited by illegal businesses to wreak havoc on local residents, destroying their environment and endangering their health.

The Minister recently told me that under section 60(3) of the Waste Management Act 1996, he was precluded from exercising any power or control in respect of the performance by a local authority or a statutory function vested in it. This appalling situation, which affects several parishes in the north fringe, is an environmental and public health disaster. On behalf of our constituents, I appeal to the Minister to set in motion a system to direct Dublin City Council and An Garda Síochána to bring this dumping to an end and restore these amenity lands and boundaries that have been vandalised and disgracefully abused.

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