A Garda investigation has begun into the discovery of Government documents in an illegal dump near the Border in Co Tyrone.
Department of Justice papers were found along with other sensitive documents from financial institutions, a publishing concern and a security company. Clinical waste has also been discovered.
The Department of Justice papers are understood to have included a briefing document concerning a meeting with the Department of Finance, and notes concerning members of the Swedish government.
The dump, at Eskra, was one of two recently discovered by the North's Department of the Environment. It confirmed yesterday that thousands of tonnes of illegal waste from the Republic had been uncovered, and could be part of a scam netting criminals tens of thousands of pounds.
A Department of Justice spokesman said: "It's a matter of great concern to the Department that some of our documents have allegedly been found on an illegal dump site in Co Tyrone. As soon as we found out, the Department contacted the Garda, and the matter is now the subject of a police investigation."
In the Dáil yesterday, Louth Sinn Féin TD Mr Arthur Morgan called for an integrated approach between North and South on waste. "The two governments must come together to co-ordinate their approach to waste management. A single Southern solution is not enough - we need an all-island environmental protection agency with teeth.
"This agency must have the power to impose tougher fines and longer sentences on those irresponsible operators who are cynically breaking the law and destroying our environment."
Mr Morgan was ruled out of order.
Another Sinn Féin representative, Mr Barry McElduff, commented on remarks by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell. The West Tyrone Assembly member said: "The irony cannot be lost on people that last week Michael McDowell was accusing organised criminal gangs of profiting from illegal dumping, and that this week his own Department is implicated in such illegal dumping."