Roadstone has told the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Local Government that it will not attend today's hearings on illegal dumping in Wicklow.
Roadstone, Wicklow County Council and the Health Service Executive Eastern Region had been invited to give evidence before the committee, which is looking into the discovery of a large-scale illegal dump on Roadstone's site near Blessington.
The council and the HSE have both prepared submissions to the inquiry. However, Roadstone said it believed it would be inappropriate to attend in advance of a final decision from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its application for a permit to build an engineered landfill on site to house the illegally dumped waste.
Roadstone said yesterday its decision not to attend today's hearings was based on a precedent set by director general of the EPA Mary Kelly and Minister for the Environment Dick Roche, who had both previously refused to be drawn on issues around the Roadstone dump because a decision on the licence application was pending. A spokesman said this was because of the quasi-judicial nature of the application.
Yesterday the company said it would prefer a deferment of the hearing as it felt "unable to attend at this point in time, due to the formal and quasi-judicial nature of the waste-licence application and the imminence of a final decision by the EPA.
"The company is concerned that an appearance before the committee may prejudice or compromise this process.
"It is totally constrained from speaking in a public forum at this time about any of these matters, except to reiterate a willingness to clean up the site at the earliest possible opportunity, including removal of the residual waste to an off-site landfill facility."
Roadstone said it would appear before the committee after the EPA's decision.
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