Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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142. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his estimate of the costs involved in dealing with the abandonment of waste by diesel launderers to local authorities and environmental agencies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25001/14]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Enforcement in relation to illegal diesel laundering activities is primarily a matter for the Revenue Commissioners from the point of view of avoiding loss of revenue to the Exchequer. My Department assists local authorities in carrying out their role as competent authorities under waste legislation, which is to take the necessary measures, on behalf of the State, to ensure that any waste generated and left abandoned by the diesel launderers is disposed of , without endangering human health and without harming the environment.

Approximately 900 incidents of diesel laundering waste dumping have been dealt with by local authorities to date and my Department has up to now reimbursed the costs associated with such disposal on a case by case basis. The majority of the clean-up operations have taken place in Louth and Monaghan but further incidents have been managed in Counties Cavan, Donegal, Offaly, Meath and Waterford. Details of the amount s provided by my Department since 2008 on a per county basis are set out in the table below:

This is a significant expenditure borne at present by the Environment Fund. My Department, as part of on-going cooperation with the Northern Ireland authorities on repatriation of illegally deposited waste in Northern Ireland, has held recent discussions with the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment on the need to develop a mechanism for dealing with waste from cross-border diesel washings which would be factored into the overall discussions on waste repatriation. These discussions are on-going.

I believe that a complete solution to this problem must necessarily involve effective and co-ordinated enforcement of the law from both a revenue and waste management perspective. In that context, my Department continues to liaise with representatives of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, the local authorities concerned and the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement to seek to identify more effective enforcement solutions and these engagements will continue.