Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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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.

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government received the text of a resolution adopted by Wicklow County Council that calls on him to hold a local public inquiry concerning the issuing of a waste permit for certain lands at Ballybeg, County Wicklow. The Minister wants to make clear how seriously he takes any matters relating to illegal dumping of waste and, in this context, he considers it important to place on the record of the House some of the actions which have been taken in this regard.

Considerable progress has been made by the relevant statutory agencies in dealing with illegal waste activity. In particular, since the establishment of the Office of Environmental Enforcement in 2003, enforcement has been better structured through the establishment of a national enforcement network. The OEE and the enforcement network have greatly raised awareness and brought about better practice and a more co-ordinated and consistent approach to environmental enforcement by the relevant authorities. Annual supporting funding from the Department's environment fund of over €7.5 million has led to some 120 additional local authority enforcement personnel and a greatly enhanced response on the ground.

In October 2005, the OEE published a major study, "The Nature and Extent of Unauthorised Waste Activity in Ireland", which concluded that large-scale illegal dumping is no longer occurring but local authorities now have to cope with problems such as fly-tipping and backyard burning. Two ministerial policy directions issued in May 2005 and July 2008 provided guidance where illegal deposition is discovered. The policy direction issued in 2005 sets the standard in terms of the expected response from the regulatory authorities, which are obliged to ensure that the necessary remedial measures will be taken to ensure that sites are restored and that waste illegally deposited is appropriately disposed of or recovered. The 2008 direction deals with the use of sanctions to ensure effective actions against those involved in unauthorised waste activities.

On the criminal side, the National Bureau of Criminal Investigations has been involved in the context of the illegal dumping of waste in County Wicklow and criminal proceedings have occurred. These proceedings have resulted in a fine of €150,000 in one case and a six-month prison sentence in another.

Regarding the Ballybeg case, the Minister has arranged for all departmental records recently released under the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007 to be furnished to the cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council with the strong recommendation that they be circulated to all members of the council without delay. He will also be arranging for them to be forwarded to all Oireachtas Members for County Wicklow. The Minister assures the House that the request from Wicklow County Council for an inquiry will be examined carefully. Such examination will, inter alia, take into account the study carried out by the Local Government Audit Service in 2005. I am sure the Deputy would agree that it is important that we approach the issue in a way that is systematic, fair and proportionate.