A decision by Dublin Corporation to rebury hospital waste and other potentially hazardous wastes along the route of a major sewage pipeline has been defended by the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald.
The waste, which had been buried in an unauthorised dump dating from the early 1980s, was unearthed last June by Pierse Contracting as it was digging a trench for the North Fringe sewer on IDA-owned land near Belcamp, west of Malahide.
The corporation immediately stopped work on the £20 million project and called in specialist consultants, Ecosafe Systems, to advise on what should be done. It also informed Fingal County Council, the IDA and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA was told the Belcamp find included "clinical waste" from hospitals. It took no action apart from advising that it should be dealt with in a professional manner, with due concern for the environment.
Ecosafe Systems recommended excavating the dump in its entirety and, meantime, encase the sewer pipe running through the IDA's 120-acre site in concrete to protect it during such future excavations.
When work resumed in August, personnel laying the sewer had to wear protective clothing and be decontaminated daily in line with advice from the Health and Safety Authority, as the waste was re-buried alongside the pipeline.
Defending this decision, the city manager said Dublin Corporation only had control over a five-metre-wide strip through the IDA site and, since the dump was much more extensive, it would not have made sense to remove the waste there alone.
It would ultimately be a matter for Fingal County Council, as the relevant local authority, to decide on how the dump was to be remediated, in consultation with the IDA, which has its own consultants working on it.
Asked why the public was not informed of the find when it happened, Mr Fitzgerald said there was no immediate risk to public health. He also said the first he heard about it was last week, "just as I am not told about every burst water-main".
He rejected a call for his resignation from Mr Tommy Broughan TD, who leads the Labour Party group on Dublin City Council, saying this was not unrelated to the council's decision last Monday to adopt a waste charge of £95 per household.
