Protesters heckle Roche over dump at Blessington

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche was heckled by anti-dump protesters as he arrived in Blessington in his home constituency of Wicklow yesterday.

The protesters, who shouted "shame" at Mr Roche as he arrived to open a new fire station, are concerned about plans for the treatment of waste at an illegal dump on Roadstone lands close to the town.

Independent councillor Tommy Cullen said locals were angry because Roadstone had not been prosecuted for having an illegal dump on the site which is above a sensitive regional water source and beside the Blessington lakes reservoir.

Mr Cullen said it had now transpired that Roadstone was "exempt from applying for planning permission" for what he insisted was a new "superdump" on the site.

Mr Cullen also claimed that all illegal dumps so far uncovered in Wicklow would be exempt from Mr Roche's new directive requiring that maximum penalties be imposed on dump owners and operators.

"The Minister's new regulations only apply back as far as 2002. The dumps in Wicklow were discovered before that," he said. "People were angry and they showed it here this morning."

However a spokesman for Mr Roche said there was absolutely no truth to the claim that a deadline would apply to the directive. He said the Minister had described the claim as "nonsense". The spokesman challenged the protesters to "say what their agenda really is".

Phillip Duffy of Wicklow County Council said the question of whether Roadstone needed planning permission was complex. Under normal circumstances, work carried out under a section 55 order from the council was exempt from planning permission, because it was remedial work.

In the case of the Roadstone dump, the council had served a section 55 notice requiring the recycling of recyclable material; the proper disposal of hazardous material and the creation of a properly engineered "cell" elsewhere on Roadstone's 600-acre holding, to contain the residual waste.

Roadstone has applied to the Environmental Protection Agency for a waste-management licence for the work.

A spokesman for the company yesterday said fears that the granting of a licence would lead to the creation of a "superdump" - effectively licensing an illegal dumping operation - were nonsense.

Roadstone was not, and would not be, in the waste-management business, he insisted, pointing out that the company had already said whatever "cell" was built there would only cater for the existing waste.

Roadstone has consistently maintained that the waste was dumped on the site without its permission or knowledge.

Members of the group Residents Against Dumping said Mr Roche should use his powers to ensure that Roadstone required planning permission and would have to follow an open and transparent process.