Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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203. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the actions that will be taken following reports (details supplied) of the pollution of waterways in the north east due to the criminal activities of persons involved in laundering diesel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3162/15]

Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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205. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the actions he will take on foot of the report in a newspaper (details supplied) of 18 January 2015 that cancer causing toxins from illegal fuel laundering plants are being dumped into the Fane river Dundalk, County Louth, and also into Lough Muckno and Lough Ross; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3168/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 203 and 205 together.

The Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts carry a general prohibition on the entry of any polluting matter to waters.  Any person causing or permitting polluting matter to enter waters is liable on conviction on indictment, to a fine of up to €15,000,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or both. The primary enforcement responsibility in relation to water pollution rests with local authorities, which are in turn supervised by the Environmental Protection Agency for this purpose.  Local authorities issue a significant number of enforcement notices every year under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act.  These enforcement notices require respondents to carry out actions to prevent or remedy water pollution. These are followed up by prosecutions where necessary.

I understand that Louth County Council on behalf of Irish Water has contacted the Water Pollution Inspectorate in Northern Ireland to investigate this specific allegation. The Council itself carries out regular sampling at various properties throughout the water distribution system for Dundalk and drinking water sample results for 2014 are fully compliant with the Drinking Water Regulations.

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, in particular without risk to water.

Approximately 1,200 incidents of diesel laundering waste dumping have been dealt with by local authorities since 2008 and to date my Department has reimbursed all of the costs associated with such disposal on a case by case basis. Almost half of the clean-up operations have taken place in County Louth with 596 incidents having been dealt with at a cost of approximately €4.8 m.

This is a significant expenditure borne at present by the Environment Fund. My Department, as part of on-going cooperation on repatriation of illegally deposited waste in Northern Ireland, has held recent discussions with the Northern Ireland authorities 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.

While there is anecdotal evidence which suggests that a large proportion of such waste has its origins in Northern Ireland, it has not been possible to prove an explicit link. Following discussions with An Garda Siochana, the Revenue Commissioners and Monaghan County Council, who have also been seriously affected by this issue, my Department has agreed to fund a pilot sampling programme of abandoned laundering waste material in order to generate improved intelligence. This exercise may result in linking dump sites to particular laundering processes as well as the origins of the diesel based on the markers detected in the analysed material. The pilot will be carried out by a specialised contractor who will visit the sites, sample the waste, deliver these samples to the State laboratory and compile a report based on that analysis.

There is strong and active co-operation on this and other waste management issues between the relevant enforcement authorities on both sides of the Border, involving An Garda Siochana, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other enforcement agencies. However, I will be writing to my counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive, Minister Mark Durkan, to highlight again the problems being faced by border counties exposed to the consequences of environmental crime and will also raise the issue politically at the next meeting of the North South Ministerial Council.

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.