A KERRY building company, Tinal Electrical, was yesterday convicted and fined of disposing of waste "in a manner likely to cause pollution" after council personnel spotted smoke from one of the company's housing developments.
The prosecution in Kenmare District Court was brought by Kerry County Council under Section 32 of the Waste Management Act 1996.
Solicitor for the local authority Ger McSweeney told how two council engineers were on their way to Sneem when they spotted "clouds of smoke" at Dromnevane, Kenmare, near the N70 turn-off for Sneem.
The engineers turned back and visited the site, which was being developed for housing, and found waste material was being burned.
Mr McSweeney gave the court photographs showing plastic and other material being burned.
Pádraig O'Connell, solicitor for Tinal Electrical of Atlantic Lodge, The Square, Kenmare, said his client was pleading guilty to this "once-off" [ environmental pollution] offence.
Senior Tinal Electrical employee Phil Boyle gave evidence that on the date in question, December 4th, 2006, he instructed a workman to dispose of the waste into skips, but the employee had set it on fire.
The employee had been fired as a result of the incident, as the company took a very serious view of such matters, Mr O'Connell said.
Judge James O'Connor remarked the company had previously been in difficulty with the Health and Safety Authority in relation to a workplace trench accident.
Last November at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee, Tinal Electrical and a subcontractor were convicted and fined after pleading guilty to breaches of safety regulations in a construction site accident at Dromnevane in which one man died and another was injured on October 26th, 2005.
Yesterday Judge O'Connor convicted the company and fined it €150, awarding €100 costs to the council, the sum requested by Mr McSweeney.