One of Minister for the Environment Dick Roche's personal nominees to the advisory committee of the Environmental Protection Agency took an interest in the case of a company seeking to develop an illegal dump in Co Wicklow, it was revealed yesterday.
John Buckley, an auctioneer based in Killarney, Co Kerry, who had been a member of the previous advisory committee, forwarded a letter from the company's managing director addressed to Mr Roche to the EPA's deputy director-general, Padraic Larkin.
Mr Buckley faxed a copy of the letter from Ray Stokes, managing director of Brownfield Restoration (Ire) Ltd, to Dr Larkin last December while the company's application for a waste management licence was still being considered by the EPA.
His cover note, dated December 6th 2005, was headed "John Buckley Auctioneers, Killarney, re Brownfield", and said: "Padraic, copy of letter sent to Minister Roche on Saturday. Felt you would like to be aware of correspondence. Happy Xmas, John."
The attached letter from Mr Stokes complained to the Minister that Brownfield had not received any decision from the EPA on its application for a licence to remediate and develop the illegal dump in a quarry at Whitestown, west Wicklow.
"We were hopeful that we would get a decision this year [ on the licence application]. However, no decision has yet been made. This is obviously disappointing as it is very difficult to make progress without a decision on the licence," he wrote.
His letter was also severely critical of An Bord Pleanála's decision to refuse planning permission for the proposed development on a 35-acre site. He claimed that this ruling was based on a hydrogeologist's report which contained "serious errors".
Asked about the matter yesterday, Mr Stokes said there was "nothing untoward on my part in writing to the Minister". He told The Irish Times that he had never met Mr Buckley and did not know how he got a copy of the letter.
Mr Stokes confirmed that he had given a donation of €6,000 to Fianna Fáil in 2002. "I've often given money to them and I'm entitled to do that. It had nothing to do with Whitestown" - a site which his company had bought in the same year. He said Brownfield intended to reapply for permission to develop the site.
Mr Buckley said he had "no idea" why he had faxed the letter to Dr Larkin. "I don't even know the man. Obviously, somebody must have contacted me about it. I had the interest of the EPA in mind more than anything else."
Meanwhile, environmental groups have sought an urgent meeting with the Minister to complain that none of the nominees they had submitted for appointment to the EPA's advisory committee were selected.
They told him by letter that they wished to register "extreme dismay at this decision, which results in the absence of any environmental NGO [ non-governmental organisation] representation on this body.
"The deliberate exclusion of environmental civil society representation at this level . . . flies in the face of the provisions made for its inclusion in Section 27 of the 1992 EPA Act [ and] can only be construed as a retrogressive step for the cause of environmental protection."
The Act provides that the Minister must appoint at least one member of the 12-strong EPA advisory committee from a panel nominated by "organisations which in his opinion are concerned with environmental protection" - previously An Taisce, Eco-Unesco and Voice.
But in a statutory instrument signed by Mr Roche in December 2004 the relevant nominating bodies in this category were changed to Fáilte Ireland and the Heritage Council, both State agencies, and Environmental Ecological NGOs Core Funding Ltd. This body, representing a total of 24 environmental groups, was requested by the Minister to nominate six candidates for appointment to the new advisory committee in January 2005 - 10 months after the term of office of its predecessor had expired.
