Measures to tackle waste problems detailed

Fast-track planning procedures need to be put in place without delay to tackle Ireland's growing waste crisis, according to Forfβs, the industrial policy advisory board.

In a report published yesterday, a Forfβs task force also calls for the establishment of a national waste management agency, on the model of the National Roads Authority, with "step-in" powers to implement regional waste plans.

The task force, chaired by Prof Michael Hillery, included representatives of the Department of the Environment, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, IBEC and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The report warns that waste management in Ireland, already at a "critical point", will deteriorate further - even acting as a potential brake on the expansion of the enterprise sector - unless measures to improve the situation are speedily implemented.

It cites figures showing that waste generation here increased by 89 per cent between 1995 and 1998, due to economic prosperity. This was "clearly unsustainable and highlights the urgent need to de-couple waste generation from economic growth".

Mr Colm Regan, of Forfβs, said the recent discovery of illegal dumps in Wicklow and Fingal brought into focus the need to have a strategy regarding waste minimisation and recycling as well as regulated landfill and thermal treatment facilities.

With the introduction of a landfill levy of around £10 per tonne early next year, he warned that the situation could get worse unless there was strong enforcement to deter companies from disposing of waste at unlicensed dump sites.

The Forfβs report concludes that a national waste management agency is required to provide a central focus for the implementation of national, regional and county waste management plans, backed up by regional waste management boards.

It also favours a two-way communication programme to develop a "shared national vision" for waste management. This programme would be supported by an expert information group, capable of answering specific technical questions.

In terms of where new landfill or incinerator sites should be located, the report advocates the Strategic Environmental Assessment approach, as provided for in a new EU directive, to identify how best to minimise any potential negative impacts.

Waste management centres would be designated as strategic development zones under the 2000 Planning Act, allowing projects to proceed without further objection after a period of public consultation on the adoption of a planning scheme.

Rather than imposing new facilities on reluctant communities, the report proposes that incentives, such as swimming pools, should be provided to compensate a community for hosting a waste management facility on behalf of the wider population.

It suggests that a central facility for the thermal treatment of hazardous waste should be established in a location such as Co Cork, which produces over 60 per cent of Ireland's industrial hazardous waste, with due regard for traffic impacts.

The report also says that public bodies should play a leading role in developing waste minimisation and prevention programmes as well as stimulating markets for recycled materials by adopting "green purchasing programmes", for example.

It proposes that Enterprise Ireland and the Department of the Environment should work together to promote recycling projects in the private sector, particularly because of the current shortage of landfill space for commercial and industrial waste.

"Increasingly, there are reports of commercial waste being turned away from landfill sites around the country," said the chief executive of Forfβs, Mr John Travers.