In the United States, individual States apply to themselves a slogan which civic fathers hope sums up the best of their area and what it has to offer visitors. New Jersey, for instance, likes to consider itself The Garden State. Metropolitan New Yorkers occasionally sneer at their neighbour, calling it the Garbage State. Recent events in Co Wicklow, which likes to think of itself as the Garden of Ireland, might lead people here to conclude that a more apt epithet is Wicklow - the Garbage County.
The picture that has emerged in recent weeks about illegal dumping of hospital waste in Co Wicklow is a scandal of national significance. To date, four unauthorised sites have been discovered in the Baltinglass and Blessington areas. According to one councillor, Ms Liz McManus, the Labour Party spokeswoman on health, in one site alone some 8,000 tons of hospital waste have been dumped illegally.
Most of the waste at these illegal sites seems to have come from eastern region hospitals. The Mater Hospital in central Dublin and the Blackrock Clinic in Co Dublin have both been identified as sources for some of the waste, though neither is responsible for the illegal dumping. It seems likely that waste from other east coast medical establishments has also wound up in bog holes and disused quarries in Co Wicklow, and it may be that similar illegal dumping has been taking place in other parts of the State.
A number of points arise from all this. First, it is to be hoped that all hospitals throughout the State are now actively involved in re-assessing how their waste is disposed of, and by whom. The same can be said for any producer of toxic or hazardous waste. Secondly, legitimate contractors had better make sure that anyone to whom they sub-contract waste disposal operates in a legal and ethical manner. Thirdly, any land owner tempted to make a quick buck had better think again. Fourthly, it beggars belief that Wicklow County Council knew nothing about illegal dumping given the scale of what has been revealed was taking place on its doorstep. If the council did not know, then it should have. If it did know but did nothing about it, or was foot dragging in its response, it deserves to be condemned.
The council must investigate this scandal thoroughly. It must see that those responsible are prosecuted, fined and pay the cost of the clean up. And if Wicklow is not capable of doing this, the Minister for the Environment should step in and do the necessary.