Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has unveiled new regulations to tackle illegal dumping of waste.
The new measures are designed to help local authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency to combat the problem.
The law aims to make illegal dumping unprofitable. In addition to the cost of removing the waste from
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche who published new regulations to tackle illegal waste dumping.
the ground, a landowner or contractor must pay for its correct disposal.
Using his powers under the Waste Management Act, Mr Roche issued a policy direction this morning to ensure what he called "a tougher response from enforcement authorities", following last week's judgment against Ireland by the European Court of Justice.
The European Union's highest court found Ireland guilty of "general and persistent" flouting of EU rules on waste disposal by ignoring illegal dumping throughout the State.
It ruled that the Government had failed in its obligation, dating back to 1977, to ensure that all municipal landfills held a permit for waste disposal. The court found that applications for such permits took an average of 26 months to be processed and sometimes took as long as four years.
One of the new regulations stipulates that local authorities draw up an inventory of all sites where illegal waste recovery or disposal has taken place. The authorities are to manage and monitor the sites, assess the affected areas and ensure the clean-up and removal of all hazardous waste.
Announcing the new measures, Mr Roche said: "Crimes such as these have to be prosecuted at the highest level to make the punishment fit the crime.
"I want to see these criminals brought to justice and made to pay for the havoc they have caused to the environment and to the local communities who have suffered greatly."
In the Minister's home town of Bray, Co Wicklow, one illegal dump on land north of Bray Harbour is falling into the sea.
Located in the jurisdictions of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Bray Town Council, it is likely to cost millions to remediate if all but inert material is to be removed. Town councils around the State are expected to be in a similar position.
The Green Party has reacted with scepticism to the new regulations. Environment spokesman Ciaran Cuffe said: "Hidden in the small print of today's announcement is a direction to make it easier to move waste from one region to another.
"The Minister appears to be talking out of the side of his mouth on this issue. On the one hand he is saying that he does not want an "unnecessarily restrictive approach" and on the other he wants "robust actions.
"The Minister has also stated that this policy direction will provide for the removal of all hazardous waste from illegally deposited waste. Does this mean that other waste will simply be left in situ?
"It is telling that little has been done to clean up the illegal dumps in his own constituency of Wicklow, the garden of Ireland," Mr Cuffe added.
Fine Gael welcomed the measures but questioned why they weren't introduced several months ago.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said he asked Mr Roche last year why Wicklow and Kildare county councils were not compliant with waste regulations and that the Minister replied it was not his responsibility.
"He [Roche] said it was up to the local authorities themselves and not up to him. I see today now that it is up to him. Why wasn't it a priority a couple of months ago".
Mr O'Dowd said further action is needed to combat illegal dumping. County managers should be dragged in and asked why they didn't ensure people complied with the regulations, Mr O'Dowd said.