From today the public will be able to report large-scale unauthorised dumping, fly-tipping and abandoned illegal dumps using a confidential phone line promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The service, to be launched this morning by Minister for Environment Dick Roche, is to be operated by a private company which will pass on information to gardaí, local authorities and the EPA.
Records of the information gathered will be kept, and progress of cases will be available for inspection by the EPA.
The move is part of a campaign, Dump the Dumpers, being promoted by the Environmental Enforcement Network, an alliance of the EPA, local and national authorities and the Garda.
The focus will be to identify large dumping sites that may still be operational or any remaining abandoned illegal dumps.
The new phone service will also allow the public to report large fly-tipping activities such as sites used for habitual tipping of waste from commercial vehicles.
Cases of small-scale dumping, such as people driving to rural areas and leaving bags of rubbish, will continue to be referred to local authority litter wardens.
The EPA has made substantial progress in identifying and dealing with large-scale illegal dumping since the discovery of industrial-scale dumps in Co Wicklow and elsewhere over the last six years.
However the authority acknowledges that some illegal dumps, particularly older ones, remain unidentified, while the problem of small commercial amounts of waste being dumped in rural locations continues.
The Dump the Dumpers campaign is being launched on a pilot basis for six months.
It will be supported by a national and regional press and radio campaign. The phone line will be made operational from today.
It is being operated on behalf of the EPA by the Securway Group and Emergency Response Limited, based in Bunclody, Co Wexford. The phone number is 1850 365 121.
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