A NATIONAL audit of medical waste from Irish hospitals would have to be carried out by the Department of Health to enable planning for future waste management to take place, the Fianna Fail spokesman on the environment, Mr Noel Dempsey, said at the weekend.
Mr Dempsey was in Cork to visit the city's University Hospital where the first non incineration waste management facility has been installed.
He said that, while hospitals in the State generated an estimated 10,000 tonnes of medical waste a year, no precise figures were available because of different approaches to the definition of medical waste.
"The figure could he higher or it could be lower, but we will not know until such time as a national audit has been carried out by the Department of Health. If we are going to prepare a coherent waste management policy, we will have to have such an audit," Mr Dempsey said.
The Cork University Hospital caters for less than 10 per cent of the national medical waste output.
The waste from every hospital in the Southern Health Board region was treated at the facility.
Mr Dempsey said the system was highly impressive and could have an application on a national scale. He added that Fianna Fail would not favour a central unit for medical waste treatment, and instead would encourage the introduction of a number of units at different locations.
Dublin alone, he said, would need several medical waste treatment facilities.
He added that Fianna Fail would also favour a non incineration policy for the treatment of toxic waste.
The Cork plant was installed at a cost of £1 million by GaelSafe, the Irish subsidiary of a Scottish company. GaelSafe is one of eight companies North and South of the Border to have tendered for the national medical waste treatment facility which the Government intends to establish.
The closing date for tenders is December 2nd, and the Government is expected to make a decision soon after that.
The GaelSafe waste treatment system is the first of its kind in Ireland. It has been adapted from the food industry in the US, where similar technology has been in use for the past 30 years.
The system, which does not involve combustion, treats and disinfects health care waste without harmful emissions, leaving a residue suitable for landfill disposal. The Cork facility is licensed by Cork Corporation and has been approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.