Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Gabhaim buíochas don Cheann Comhairle as an seans an cheist a ardú. Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an tAire Stáit anseo.

This issue arises following the largest meeting ever of the Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland recently in Goatstown, Dublin. Contractors from a wide area were drawn together because they are faced with the serious problem of not having a site within reach to dispose of organic material such as grass cuttings, hedge clippings and so on. At the time it appeared the Esker Lane facility in Lucan, County Dublin, would close but it has been given a stay of execution, although it has a licence for only 5,000 tonnes of waste. It is in danger of being overrun.

In addition, since January the St. Anne's Park facility has not been available. It operated for 15 years but, due to the mismanagement of the facility and the failure to address problems such as odours, spores and traffic, the patience of residents in the area has run out. However, the issue of the disposal of green waste needs to be addressed. The St. Anne's facility recycled 25,000 tonnes of valuable material, which was returned to landscape contractors for use in their work. Following a meeting between the contractors and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government two months ago, the Government failed to take decisive action to facilitate and ensure the creation of green material reception facilities and transfer stations within the greater Dublin area, which could provide an outlet.

I have been asked by the association to raise the issue of waste licences. A licence is needed even where a two-wheel trailer is used to move material between two customers as that is considered to be a transfer of waste, even though it comprises useful material such as grass clippings, which is not waste. The issue needs to be addressed for practical reasons. Such material should be exempt under the regulations for waste carriage licences because positive ecological operations are restricted.

The association seeks an allowance for the storage of a maximum of 50 cubic metres of green material to encourage people to compost on site, which many of us are encouraged to do by local authorities. However, in doing so, if we do not have a waste licence, we are breaking the law, which is ridiculous given that we are doing our best to avoid sending waste to landfill, as are landscape contractors.

Will the Minister of State ensure the Government provides the necessary facilities, which are widely available in other countries? Galway is once again ahead of many other towns and cities in that one third of its municipal waste is used for composting. It is a misnomer to describe it as waste because it is useful material. My colleague, Councillor Niall Ó Brolcháin, in Galway has been to the fore in lobbying for the construction of that facility. I hope that example can be followed elsewhere, particularly as it is following throughout Connacht. Green material must be put in a skip, which must be paid for, and that is not all, since it also goes to landfill and creates methane, something on which we are trying to cut down, as well as leachate. It is also a needless waste of a valuable material. One hopes the Minister will see his way to according this matter the priority it deserves.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, is out of the country on official business, and I am afraid the answer is rather general and not related to the specific issues the Deputy raised.

Ensuring the provision of waste facilities in line with the relevant waste management plan is primarily a matter for the local authority in question, and the Minister has consistently emphasised the importance of the local authority taking responsibility in the area. The Department operates a capital grants scheme for recycling and recovery facilities, under which nine green waste facilities have been grant-aided, and more are under consideration. However, the scheme is not sufficient to assist in the provision of all the infrastructure desirable; nor does its existence dilute the obligation on local authorities to provide for such infrastructure.

The obligation on local authorities to provide for facilities is, however, regarding household waste rather than waste arising in the course of commercial activities. Recycling, recovery or disposal of commercially arising waste is specifically the responsibility of the producer, and the local authorities are not obliged to provide facilities to, or to accept material from, the producer. Consistently landfilling commercial green waste is not viable owing to our commitment to reduce the proportion of biodegradable waste going to landfill. Against that backdrop, it seems there is a very obvious commercial opportunity regarding collection, shredding or compaction and composting of such green waste.

I know there are particular problems in Dublin, as the Deputy has said, regarding the closure of St. Anne's Park, which, to my limited knowledge, might be partly owing to the fact that it started taking in too much commercial waste. There did not seem to be objections from residents when it catered more for——

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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It was coming from Westmeath.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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That is the point I was making. It got too big, and it was not simply vans from landscape gardeners. It is not in my constituency, but I heard reports of 40-ft. trucks going in. It was the scale that people complained about.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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We are talking about traders.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Green waste, including commercially arising green waste, continues to be accepted at Esker Lane in Lucan. Looking to the future, however, South Dublin County Council will prioritise domestic users and commits itself only to keeping the facility available to householders. In the short term, the council will apply to the EPA for a revised waste licence for the green centre in Esker Lane so that the intake of green waste might be increased. All the Dublin local authorities are working hard to identify potential alternative and supplemental locations for the collection and compaction of green waste prior to transport for recycling elsewhere. Householders will, however, continue to have priority at any locations identified.

I hear the Deputy's point. There is nothing in this about the issue of people requiring licences just to move around. I will relate that back to the Minister, but I believe I heard some mention of Dublin City Council having identified a site in Ballyfermot on which it is following through. That is not in the script.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Perhaps a meeting might be facilitated. They are prepared to finance a solution, but they need the Department's co-operation.

Séamus Pattison (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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There is no facility for questions on the Adjournment.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy said, the Minister met them a few months ago, and I will speak to him on his return next week or whenever I see him and tell him that the Deputy had raised those ongoing concerns.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this very important issue. I raised it on the Adjournment approximately six months ago, and I have done so consistently on the Order of Business and whenever I got the opportunity, privately and publicly, with the Minister.

This is one of the great scandals of recent years. I speak not of the illegal dumping itself, but of the inactivity since the waste was uncovered. It is now more than three years since many hundreds of thousands of tonnes were uncovered in County Wicklow. I have a very specific matter on the Adjournment. It is to do with the illegal waste that has been dumped on a site known as O'Reilly's, Whitestown, Stratford-on-Slaney and the Roadstone Lands at Blessington. In three years, not an ounce of waste has been removed. It is extremely difficult to have confidence in the statutory bodies when one sees what has happened in this case. There has been no activity and nothing moved out of the site. A new housing estate has been built no distance at all from one of the sites — about as far as I am from the Minister of State at present. If he, or any of his staff, takes a trip there, he will see 20 or 30 vents a few metres from new houses. It is an absolute disgrace. The Government's own guideline issued in 1994 prescribes a distance of 50 metres from any landfill owing to the danger of gas. No new house should be constructed within that distance. Those new houses are literally on top of that illegal dump.

I will not beat around the bush, since what I seek is quite simple. I want the Minister to use his powers, as he intimated he would last October, under section 60 of the Waste Management Act 1996 to issue a direction to the relevant authorities to deal with this matter once and for all. As a local public representative, I find it very hard at this stage to go out and try to explain what is happening, since no one has any confidence that anything will be done. I beg the Minister to do something about this. The power is there in that Waste Management Act 1996. I am sure that, when it was drawn up and the use of this section was envisaged, it was for something far less significant than the extremely serious problem that we have in this case.

I have no doubt that, in the coming years, many other illegal dumps will be uncovered. The activity or inactivity of the statutory bodies to date regarding these two sites will certainly not act as a disincentive to any illegal dumper.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry this matter has arisen on the wrong day. I am sure that the Deputy would rather have had the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, from his own constituency to answer him. However, I can read out to him the answer I have here.

Waste management enforcement action is a matter for the relevant local authority and the Office of Environmental Enforcement. The Waste Management Act 1996 empowers local authorities to require by notice specified measures to be taken regarding the holding, recovery or disposal of waste to prevent or limit environmental pollution. Under the Waste Management Act 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency has statutory responsibility for waste licensing and is independent in the discharge of its functions. It would therefore not be appropriate for me to comment on any of the specified cases mentioned. Having said that, I understand the Deputy's concerns that the enforcement proceeding should be progressed with a little more urgency. I am sure the Minister shares his concern.

On a more general level, the Minister is committed to issuing statutory guidance under section 60 of the Waste Management Act 1996, which the Deputy mentioned, to local authorities regarding the remediation of sites that have been the subject of unauthorised waste activities. The intention of that guidance is to give local authorities and the agency a clear focus on the protection of human health, the environment and the property of third parties in responding to illegal waste activities. The Minister intends to issue that guidance within the next few weeks. However, I stress that it will not deal with individual cases. Section 60 of the Waste Management Act 1996 precludes the Minister from exercising any power or control regarding the performance in particular circumstances of a function conferred on either the agency or a local authority.

Let me detail what is happening overall regarding illegal sites. Substantial powers exist under the Waste Management Act 1996 to enable both the local authorities and the agency to tackle illegal waste activity. They were further strengthened by the Protection of the Environment Act 2003. Local authorities are empowered to order measures to be taken regarding the disposal of waste, including the remediation of any effects arising from illegal activities. They may also directly take appropriate action to remedy or counteract such activities and to recover their costs through the courts. Local authorities also enjoy substantial powers to halt vehicles, inspect premises and examine records found. The burden of proof in certain enforcement activities has been changed, in light of the experience of illegal dumping, to require that defendants must demonstrate that their activities do not cause environmental pollution. The courts can assume in certain cases that a landowner consented to the illegal activity unless the contrary can be shown.

It should be noted that the maximum penalties attaching to illegal waste activities — €15 million and-or a ten-year sentence — are substantial. Over €7 million has been allocated from the environment fund to assist local authorities to act on such powers. The money is being used to support an increased emphasis on the overall environmental enforcement effort, with particular emphasis on combating dumping and other unauthorised waste activities. Wicklow County Council has received a grant of €360,000 to enable it to employ seven additional waste enforcement workers.

The Government has demonstrated the seriousness with which it views the incidence of illegal dumping. The Garda was asked to assist in the investigation of such activity in County Wicklow. A team from the national bureau of criminal investigation is involved in ongoing inquiries into such matters. On the civil side, Wicklow County Council is continuing to take the action it deems appropriate. Formal legal proceedings are being prepared in several instances. I am sure the House will acknowledge that the measures being undertaken will greatly help local authorities in tackling the problem of illegal waste activity. They are a testament to the priority the Government attaches to this matter.

During a debate on housing earlier this week, Deputy Timmins referred to a housing estate in County Wicklow.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I spoke about the Woodleigh estate in Blessington.

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I will ask some questions about the matter in my capacity as Minister of State with responsibility for housing. I regret the Minister was absent when the Deputy raised the issue.