Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 413: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount of funding assigned by him to carry out renovation, clean up and other works at Kerdiffstown landfill site, Naas, County Kildare; the source of the funding and the time scale for making the landfill safe from all pollution threats [3786/11]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It is essential that every effort is made to ensure that those responsible for environmental damage fully meet the costs involved. Any question of State funding for any remedial works involved, whether from the Environment Fund or any other source, would fall to be considered in that context. Any facility giving rise to environmental pollution is a cause of concern but there is a system in place under which competent authorities can ensure that obligations under waste legislation are met. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - through its Office of Environmental Enforcement (OEE) – is charged with ensuring that the Irish enforcement system is capable of securing timely compliance with the requirements of the Waste Management Act 1996, including under section 32, which provides that the holder of waste is responsible for ensuring that waste is managed in a manner which does not cause environmental pollution.

The EPA is the competent authority in relation to landfills and all such waste facilities must obtain a waste licence from the Agency. Such licences are subject to stringent conditions so as to ensure that the facilities concerned operate to the highest environmental standard. Enforcement of licence conditions is also a matter for the EPA. The need for strong enforcement action has been aided by Ministerial policy directions which issued in May 2005 and July 2008, respectively, providing 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, who are obliged to ensure that the necessary remedial measures are 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. The particular landfill site at Kerdiffstown is the subject of enforcement action by the EPA, including legal proceedings which, in line with these Ministerial policy directions, are being pursued at the highest possible level. In these circumstances it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on the matter at this stage.