Sir, - I would like to invite all of those appalled by the recent discovery of illegal dumps to try to find a legal equivalent in the Dublin/Wicklow area. They will soon find they are not allowed use what facilities there are.
The recent hauliers' protest revolved around the fact that there is nowhere to go with clean waste material, namely clay, topsoil and, in its wetter form, muck. While there are adequate recycling facilities for hazardous waste, at a cost, it is now the case that the very earth itself cannot be moved.
How can you recycle the ground if not by digging it up and moving it elsewhere? This was the business of those protesting and without this form of business, building works cease.
Considering a small extension to the house after Christmas? that could mean up to 100 tonnes of clay that needs moving - where? How about a school or hospital? Thousands of tonnes. No, let's think more broadly: how about a Luas line, or - heaven forbid! - a port tunnel?
The protesting hauliers are only the first people to be affected by this anomaly. Ironically, their traditional loads were of the cleanest form of waste possible, that of the earth itself. The polluters - the skip hire companies - are still in business and still dumping illegally; they have simply moved further out into other satellite counties.
Dublin needs landfill. You cannot turn a load of earth into anything else, no matter how much the freshly shocked, self-righteous NIMBYs would like to. I presume it will take the potential cancellation of vital public works to drive this point home. Local hauliers simply cannot wait that long - and so, to the dole office we go! - Yours, etc.,
P. Finnegan, D·n Laoghaire, Co Dublin.