Local authorities are facing a potential bill running into the hundreds of millions of euro to clean up and secure old municipal dumps.
This follows yesterday's ruling by the European Court of Justice, which found Ireland in serious breach of waste directives.
The Office for Environmental Enforcement (OEE) is to oversee an audit of hundreds of dump sites that were used between 1977 and 1996 to identify those that pose an environmental threat.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche is also preparing regulations that will require landowners to bear the clean-up costs of illegal dumps on their land.
Yesterday he acknowledged that the State had been slow in implementing the legislation in the past, but said that recent measures, including the establishment of the OEE, were now beginning to address that deficit.
Although the court ruling refers specifically to just 12 sites, its general findings have major implications for dumps around the country that were used after 1977, when the directive was introduced in Europe, but which was not implemented in Ireland until 1996.
To date, the State has only enforced legislation on monitoring and clean-up on landfills that have been operated since 1996, and the judgment will extend this back to all sites operated since 1977.
The potential cost of cleaning up the older sites is considered to be extremely high, running into the hundreds of millions of euro. This is based on the current estimates of €100 million cost of the environmental remediation and protection measures at just 50 licensed sites that have been closed in the last eight years.
Provisional estimates put the number of affected sites at close to 300, with virtually every town and city having operated a municipal site during the period, most of which have now been closed. A full audit, overseen by the OEE, is to begin later this year to identify those that pose an environmental threat.
The Government is also to introduce regulations to license all the sites, which would then be subject to ongoing monitoring.
Senior staff from the OEE met officials from the European Commission last month in advance of the judgment to discuss proposals to deal with waste issues raised by the expected judgment. The commission is now seeking the remediation of all waste sites that pose an environmental threat, sufficient enforcement action and deterrents against illegal dumping, and the regulation of all waste sites in the country.
Discussions have also taken place between the commission and the Department of the Environment in relation to ongoing complaints in an effort to avert further European Court prosecutions against Ireland.
A spokesman for the commission said it was "encouraged" by recent initiatives in Ireland aimed at increasing enforcement.
Yesterday Mr Roche told The Irish Times that officials from his department and the Attorney General's office were preparing the wording of a directive that would require the owners of illegal dump sites to bear the costs of clean-up. The OEE is finalising a list of all known illegal sites.
"It's a very clear wake-up call that we have to get on with the job of providing waste infrastructure, including thermal treatment, and I think there needs to be a more honest and open debate about it," he said.
Opposition parties claimed current actions by the Government were insufficient. Labour Party environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said Ireland had one of the worst records of enforcing European environmental legislation.
"The fact is that Ireland under Fianna Fáil and the PDs has had one of the worst records among member states for implementing EU environmental directives," he said.
