Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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193. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he is aware of complaints in relation to illegal dumping at Whitestown in west County Wicklow and of the failure of Wicklow County Council to remediate the site, as required by the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21009/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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In November 2001, Wicklow County Council discovered that unauthorised dumping had taken place on this site and subsequent investigations revealed that the illegal dumping operation was systematic and large scale and had taken place over a period of a number of years, from 1996 to 2001. By June 2002, Wicklow County Council investigations concluded that in excess of 200,000 tonnes of waste material had been dumped at the site. Wicklow County Council also requested the assistance of An Garda Síochána, and the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted an investigation. There have been a number of criminal convictions subsequent to the Garda investigation.

This site was cited in the European Court of Justice Judgment in Case C - 494/01 as an example of Ireland’s failure to comply with the 1975 Waste Framework Directive.  My Department, on behalf of the State, has been liaising with the European Commission to ensure that the requirements of the judgment are fully met and it is in these circumstances that my Department, in June 2011, requested Wicklow County Council to remediate the site, pursuant to its powers under section 56 of the Waste Management Act 1996.

In response, the Council, working with the EPA, established a technical working group (TWG) to oversee a programme of detailed investigation and processing methodology of the areas of illegal waste at the Whitestown site. The TWG agreed a programme for the remediation of the site which involved waste removal and capping of the effected site zones. The excavation of waste from Zones A and B was completed during September 2014, with some 120,000 tonnes of mixed waste and soil excavated and processed, while the capping of Zone C was finalised last November. Due to poor weather conditions, the final landscaping of the site is now being completed and should be finalised next month.

Full details with respect to the background of the site, the role of the TWG, the tier 3 risk assessment undertaken, the remediation works proposed, methodology employed and status of the project are publicly available on my Department’s website at .

The European Commission have been fully briefed at all stages of the remediation process and have expressed their satisfaction as to the progress being made. The cost of remediation is being funded by the State, with Wicklow County Council seeking cost recovery through the Courts. As the matter is the subject of on-going legal proceedings, I do not propose to comment further.