Baby wipes firm has not paid for clean-up

The multinational company which owned thousands of packets of baby wipes washed up on Kerry beaches last summer has not yet paid…

The multinational company which owned thousands of packets of baby wipes washed up on Kerry beaches last summer has not yet paid the clean-up bill, it has emerged.

Procter & Gamble last year admitted it was the owner of the Pampers baby wipes which went missing from a ship off the coast of France in heavy storms.

Some nine containers of the wipes ended up on beaches in the south of England and south of Ireland. Kerry was one of the worst affected areas and the council presented the company with a €12,000 bill for the clean-up operation.

The wipes appeared at first in packets, then when the packets broke up, individual wipes began washing up on the county's beaches throughout the summer.

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On one occasion it took three pick-up truck loads to remove the wipes from beaches in the Ballinskelligs area.

Mr Micheal Ó Coiléain, environmental awareness officer with Kerry County Council, said some of the €100,000 spent by the council on the beaches last year to retain its blue flags went directly into the baby wipes clean-up.

"The beaches around Kerry are a very valuable resource. If it was good PR last year to offer to pay for the clean-up, we would like to see the colour of their money now, one year later," Mr Ó Coiléain said.

The council was now dealing directly with the company's insurers and it had supplied them with information over the past year including details of staff hours and landfill charges. The council also had photographs of the truck loads of baby wipes it had been forced to collect. However, the insurers wanted individual receipts which the council simply did not have, he said.

According to a statement issued by Procter & Gamble this week, the company remains committed to making the contribution to the council "but requires the further paperwork to be completed by Kerry County Council to make this happen". The company's loss adjusters requested some additional details several months ago. "This information has not been received," the company said.