500 calls made over illegal dumping

A new confidential phone line for reporting large-scale illegal dumping and fly-tipping has received more than 500 calls in its first month of operation. The service, established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was launched by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche at the end of June.

The public are encouraged to report any incidents of dumping, from small-scale dumping such as motorists leaving bags of household rubbish or building debris in rural areas, to large-scale illegal dumps and landfills.

The EPA also hopes that the service will uncover any remaining abandoned illegal dumps.

The information is gathered by a private company, Securway Group and Emergency Response Ltd, working on behalf of the EPA. The company assesses calls received before passing the information on to local authority litter wardens, to the EPA or to the Garda, depending on the scale and type of dumping.

The phone line is running on a six-month pilot basis and the EPA has said that it will not make a full assessment of the service, including a breakdown of the level of different types of dumping and the areas of the country worst affected, until the end of that period.

However, a spokeswoman for the EPA said that it had been encouraged by the large number of calls received so far. "The fact that we have received more than 500 calls in the first four weeks shows the level of concern among the public. While we do not know yet how many of these calls will result in prosecutions, we hope that the phone line will prove very useful in combating illegal dumping."

The public can call the 24-hour line on 1850 365 121.