Brussels warns Wicklow council over dump

WICKLOW County Council was warned yesterday that it would be ill advised to proceed with a controversial land fill dump near Rathnew until new EU waste licensing regulations are enacted in Ireland this summer.

These will require an assessment by the Environmental Protection Agency of the danger posed to groundwater by dumping.

The warning came from a senior Environment Commission official, Mr Liam Cashman, who was testifying before the European Parliament's Petitions Committee on a complaint from local residents, alleging the proposals were in breach of EU waste dumping and groundwater directives.

Mr Cashman said that even if the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, approved the project on the basis of an environmental assessment report currently before him, the council would still be bound by EU waste disposal legislation, although it had not yet been enacted by Ireland.

In effect, this meant the council could dig out the site but not use it, a course which Mr Cashman suggested would not be "prudent".

The commission was currently taking infringement proceedings against the Government over its failure to enact both the groundwater and the waste directives but, Mr Cashman said, it had received an assurance that the legislation would be in place by the summer.

He argued that the council should wait until the new licensing system, administered by the independent Environmental Protection Agency instead of the council itself, was in place.

Once the directives were enacted, however, the MEPs' committee would no longer have a role in the matter as the Government has indicated it would not be applying for part funding of the dump by the EU.

Ms Mary Banotti (FG, Dublin) said it appeared member states were now regularly deliberately circumventing MEPs' supervision by not asking for finance for controversial projects which might normally have been expected to be funded.

Mr Alan Gillis (FG, Leinster) said the committee should appreciate the massive local opposition to the dump and the fact that the local council had twice voted against it. There were other more appropriate sites available.