An independent review and analysis of illegal dumps found on Roadstone land near Blessington, Co Wicklow is now imperative, according to the deputy leader of the Labour Party, Ms Liz McManus TD.
Commenting after Wicklow County Council raised the possibility of Roadstone applying for a licence to retain uncovered waste on its land, Ms McManus said the only investigation currently on-going on Roadstone land was commissioned by Roadstone.
Roadstone is a subsidiary of Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), one of Ireland's largest public companies.
She insisted that as the council had acknowledged that it had itself dumped material on the Roadstone lands, public confidence required that a third party, other than the company or the council, should investigate and analyse the findings.
Roadstone has said there could be about 60,000 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish on its land which abuts the Dublin water supply at Blessington reservoir. But Wicklow County Council appeared to dispute this figure at the weekend with a Sunday newspaper quoting a council official who put the figure at about 100,000 tonnes.
While Roadstone said it understood the council's figures "more or less" tallied with its own, lower figure, clarification was not available from the council yesterday. Ms McManus said "there is a conflict of evidence between the council and Roadstone which must be resolved".
She added that "suggestions that Roadstone intend to apply for a licence to retain the dumps have caused considerable concern in the area, particularly in view of the fact that it is located only a few hundred metres from the Blessington reservoir.
"A licence to operate a landfill is a licence to print money and I don't think Roadstone should be rewarded for having illegal dumps on its land," she added.
A spokesman for Roadstone maintained that "operating a landfill is not on our agenda". He said Roadstone were "shocked and embarrassed" at the discovery of the waste and was working with the Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to remediate the area.
Just one of the options put forward by a range of international experts employed by the company was to leave the waste where it is, while ensuring that pollution does not leak out.
This would require a landfill licence, but the spokesman was adamant that taking in additional waste was not being considered by the company. Roadstone has consistently maintained that it knew nothing of the dumping which took place on its land, and that it happened without its knowledge or permission.
However Ms McManus is equally adamant that "Roadstone must give a specific undertaking that any contaminated material will be removed and safely disposed of". She said the Environmental Protection Agency must give a commitment that it will not issue a licence to allow this site to be used for a landfill.
"This is an issue that has implications far outside Wicklow. It would I believe be creating a very dangerous precedent to allow an illegal dump to be transformed into a licensed landfill."
