Inquiry into illegal dumping

Further prosecutions for illegal dumping at sites in Co Wicklow are expected in the coming months, according to Garda sources.

An investigation into dumping at five sites in the county got under way in January 2002. Yesterday's court hearing in Baltinglass resulted from that investigation.

It has been learned that a number of files have been sent to the DPP in relation to other illegal dumps in the county, and more files are being prepared.

The garda investigation, the first of its type in the State, is expected to be complete in the next three months.

The inquiry is being led by the garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, backed by local gardaí and Wicklow County Council.

The council had identified about 100 sites where illegal dumping had taken place.

A lot of this dumping took place near Blessington in the 90's. From about 1997, there was dumping around Glen of Imaal, and in north Wicklow at Fassaroe, Kilmacanogue, Kilpedder, Ashford, Newtownmount- kennedy and Roundwood.

The practice of illegal dumping increased in the late 1990s due to the building boom in the greater Dublin area and the increasing costs of legal waste.

Illegal dumping in Wicklow had grown into a multi-million euro industry before the investigation got under way, according to sources. In 2001 legally operating dumps charged up to £2,500 for a 20-ton load of hospital waste. At an illegal dump a lorry owner was charged around £90.

In the course of the Wicklow investigations hazardous hospital waste, and builders' rubble were found at different locations around the county.

Under the Waste Management Act 1996 those found guilty on indictment and in serious breach of the law face fines of up to €12.7 million and can be jailed for 10 years by the Circuit Court.

It is understood many of those targeted by the criminal investigation may also be the subject of civil actions currently being prepared by Wicklow County Council.