Council now admits it knew of second dump

Fingal County Council has admitted it is aware there is a second illegal dump in its administrative area, contrary to claims made yesterday after the discovery of 20-year-old hospital waste buried at a site in north Dublin.

Speaking on RT╔'s Morning Ireland yesterday, Mr Liam Coughlan, senior engineer with the council, said it was unaware of any other dump sites in the Fingal area. Nor, he said, was it investigating any other sites.

Yesterday evening, however, the council confirmed its attention had been drawn to a second illegal dump at Killeek, St Margarets, near Swords. According to a farmer whose land borders the dump, it may also contain hospital waste.

Mr Liam Lumley said he had "picked out syringes" from the illegal dump several years ago, although he said "it's very difficult to prove exactly where the material is coming from". He added he was "outraged" the council could deny there were other dumps in north Dublin.

"I've written to the council several times and we even sent in petitions complaining about the dump but the council doesn't want to know."

He said he only got a reply from the local authority acknowledging the dump's presence after he sent a solicitor's letter.

Dumping at the Killeek site is believed to have begun in 1988 when rubble arising from the construction of a nearby housing estate was brought there. According to Mr Lumley, the dump now stretches over five acres reaching a height of 50 to 60 feet at some points.

Mr Martin Kiely, senior executive at Fingal's environmental department, said the site had been examined and no hazardous waste had been found. "We are happy enough with that information," he said.

He added a member of family which owned the land on which the dump was located had said it had ceased tipping there. The council's "priority" was to ensure that remained the case rather than examining the nature of the waste, said Mr Kiely.

But Mr Lumley said the dump should be removed. "We don't know what's in it, and the only reason the council seem to be giving for not cleaning it up is that it will cost too much."

Mr Coughlan told The Irish Times he was speaking in the radio interview yesterday only in reference to dumps in which hazardous waste had been found. He said as far as he understood the Belcamp site was the only such dump in the Fingal area.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the IDA said it was awaiting a report from environmental consultants to establish how much of its 120-acre site in Belcamp was contaminated. The site was purchased for £6 million from five different vendors from 1997 onwards. He added the IDA would not identify to the media the names of the vendors.

The medical waste was discovered last June when Dublin Corporation began laying a pipeline for a drainage project. The waste was put back where it was found, and covered, pending a decision on what to do with it.

According to Fingal, the waste covers an area at least equivalent to the length of the 200 metre pipeline at a width of 20 to 25 metres.

Yesterday, Labour TD Mr Tommy Broughan called for the immediate resignation of the Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, for not informing councillors of the find. He said 100 families of settled Travellers and 4,000 households live near the site.