VILLAGEAugust/September 
T
HE multi-million scandal surround-
ing the illegal dumping of waste in
county Wicklow is another legacy left
to the new environment minister, Alan Kelly,
by his predecessor, Phil Hogan and another
reason why the latter’s proposed elevation
to the post of European Commissioner has
been questioned.
In October last, Nessa Childers, MEP
wrote a letter of complaint to then EU envi-
ronment commissioner Janez Potocnik
detailing the history of illegality, incom-
petence and downright dishonesty with
which a succession of state agencies and
private waste companies have dealt with
the massive dumping of hazardous hospi-
tal, commercial and domestic waste in the
‘Garden County’ which first came into the
media spotlight as long ago as .
In particular, she referred to the illegal
landfill site at Whitestown, County Wicklow,
where an estimated million tonnes of illegal
waste is located and which requires urgent
remediation due to the environmental threat
it poses to a local waterway that runs into
the river Slaney – and to salmon-spawning
and otter habitats.
Childers pointed out that the failure of
Wicklow County Council and the Department
of the Environment to clean up the site is in
breach of a judgment of the European Court
of Justice in  which specifically ordered
immediate remediation action.
The remediation has been delayed due
to an extraordinary sequence of events
which were revealed in a High Court action
taken by Wicklow County Council against a
number of parties it claimed was responsi-
ble for the illegal dumping.
The Council was seeking to get dam-
ages off the polluters in order to raise the
necessary cost of remediation which was
estimated to be in the tens of millions by
the local authority.
During hearings of the case in July ,
it emerged that an authorised officer of the
Council, Donal O’Laoire, had been employed
to identify the nature and source of pollution
at the landfill in  but had then sought
to secure a contract worth in excess of €
million to clean it up. The court heard that
O’Laoire had discussed the plan with County
Manager Eddie Sheehy and County Head of
Services Michael Nicholson during .
But it later came unstuck when he failed to
obtain the necessary lease or other inter-
est in the landfill which would allow his
company to apply for a licence from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In late , the landowner John O’Reilly,
refused a lease offer of €, per year
from O’Laoire’s company, Environmental
Remediation Ltd. It emerged later that
O’Laoire sought to do a deal with O’Reilly
NEWS
Also in this section:
Heather Perrin 19
Law reform 20
Aarhus Convention 22
Donegal planning 24
Donal O’Laoire sought
€30m contract, tried
to do commercial
deal with polluter
he was investigating
for criminality, and
allegedly discussed
Manager’s evidence in
contempt of court.
By Frank Connolly
Wicklow Council Consultant
sought tender for clean-up of
illegal waste
junior minister calls for investigation into Wicklow waste and zoning
controversies. Pic: Whitestown Quarry