Motion to dismiss waste cost actions

A MOTION to dismiss a number of High Court actions aimed at determining who must bear the costs of treating large quantities of hospital and other hazardous waste in west Wicklow is to be heard by the High Court tomorrow.

Granting the application for an adjournment, Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe said he would like to hear submissions from all parties on Thursday regarding the case.

The motion to be considered by Mr Justice O’Keeffe comes after Ian Finlay, for Brownfield Restoration, a party to the actions, accused Wicklow County Council of failure to prosecute its case.

Mr Finlay said that after a High Court hearing in July the council had undertaken to discover documents to the court, but when these had not arrived by last week, the motion to dismiss the council’s action on grounds that it failed to prosecute its case was submitted.

The motion would also dismiss cross-proceedings by Brownfield and Dean Waste alleging the council was itself engaged in dumping on the lands and should bear the remediation costs.

Mr Finlay said, however, that following submission of the motion, an affidavit was received by his solicitors, Ivor Fitzpatrick Company, after close of business on Friday. Later that night, hundreds of documents had arrived at the solicitors’ offices.

Mr Finlay said in view of “these very unusual circumstances” he was asking for an adjournment until Thursday to enable his legal team to consider the documents.

Shane Murphy SC for Dean Waste said his clients were party to a separate but similar motion and concurred with Mr Finlay’s experience of the discovery of documents.

However, Mr Murphy said in the case of Dean Waste a large volume of documents had arrived with solicitors late on Friday, while the affidavit arrived on Monday. He said a further discovery of e-mail logs had arrived only yesterday. He too asked for an adjournment until Thursday.

Separately, counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency said the agency may want to make submissions at a later date. The EPA, a notice party to the hearing, had informed the court of its interest at the beginning of the case, counsel explained.

The court has previously been told by the council that the dumping has caused environmental pollution. Investigations at the Whitestown site had revealed some 286,000 tonnes of waste, which had contaminated soil, resulting in a need for 1,140,000 tonnes of material to be removed and/or treated.