Council staff were obstructed from investigating illegal dumping in Wicklow

Wicklow County Council staff have been physically obstructed in their attempts to investigate illegal dumping in the west Wicklow area, The Irish Times has learned.

News of the obstructions - and the latest find of hazardous waste on land known as Stephenson's Quarry near Donard - angered councillors attending a council meeting in Wicklow yesterday.

Speaking to The Irish Times, a number of members criticised the fact that neither the garda∅ nor the EPA have been formally asked to help in the criminal investigation.

On two occasions last Friday afternoon, staff from the council's environmental unit were physically blocked from gaining access to sites at Russborough and at Blessington.

At Russborough council officials were prevented from accessing the site by the presence of a number of parked vehicles which they requested be removed. Although the site did have a licence for land reclamation involving filling with builders' rubble and clay, it is understood that council staff wanted to inspect the contents of the site.

In a second incident later that day council staff arrived at an illegal transfer facility north of Blessington to find their way on to the property blocked by what were described as "a number of burly men."

Wicklow County Council staff were unavailable to comment on the obstructions last evening. However, a council source said the obstruction had "bordered on intimidation".

Wicklow councillor and Labour spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said she was "now very seriously concerned" about the ability of the council to handle the investigation.

She said the latest find of chemicals in a number of barrels at Stephenson's Quarry, close to the first find at Coolnamadra near Donard, had not yet been investigated fully by the council because it did not have the capacity to deal with the number of emerging sites.

"It is particularly worrying that neither the garda∅ nor the Environmental Protection Agency have been formally asked to help in the criminal investigation", she said.

"The garda∅ are the ones with the training and the expertise to carry out the criminal investigation - the council says it has received full co-operation from everyone, but how does it know? That is a matter for the garda∅ to determine", she insisted.

"Since October the council knew of the activity of these people, it is obviously time for a full criminal investigation - we have yet to see legal charges against anyone,", she added.

Meanwhile, residents of Enniskerry in north Co Wicklow have claimed they have evidence of hospital waste being dumped on a site near the village since the early 1990s.

The Fianna Fβil TD for Wicklow, Mr Dick Roche, said he had been reporting incidents of unauthorised dumping - including the Enniskerry case - in east and west Wicklow to the county council for 10 years.

It was a tribute to the "wind of change" in the council that the issue was being actively pursued now, he said.