A proposed "mega-dump" in Silvermines, Co Tipperary, could be "the death knell of one of the most beautiful landscapes in the country", a spokesman for local residents has claimed.

Mr Eamonn De Stafort was one of a group of protesters who travelled from the area to picket Leinster House yesterday.

Calling the proposal "a throwback to the 1940s and 1950s when waste was disposed of indiscriminately in quarries", he said the quantities envisaged for dumping in Silvermines were "so vast as to be without precedent in any part of Ireland".

The plan included provision for disposing of 100,000 tons in year one, to reach an annual 450,000 tons by year seven, with a total operational life of 22 years, according to Mr De Stafort.

Labour's Sen Kathleen O'Meara, who accompanied the protesters, said they were fighting for their future "against the threat posed by the location of a monster commercial dump, run by a multinational purely for profit."