Wicklow County Council is investigating a find of clinical waste from four Dublin hospitals, which was dumped illegally in the Glen of Imaal last Tuesday.
Tests are being carried out on the waste which includes body fluid bags, used tubing from operations, gloves and blood soaked bandages.
The waste is also believed to have contained confidential patient records including the names and addresses of patients, their ailments, biopsy results and details of individual’s health insurance cover.
Mr Liam Fitzpatrick, the county secretary, confirmed the find was being investigated.
"We have suspicion that hospital waste has been deposited there," he said. "We have carried out a preliminary investigation at this stage. The next stage is to have a co-ordinated meeting to see how we can trace the source of the material."
The waste was found in a disused quarry and the site has now been closed off to prevent unauthorised access.
Wicklow county council is monitoring local water supplies to see if they have been contaminated and how much of the site is affected.
Fine Gael and Labour both said the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, had a number of questions to answer resulting form the find.
"By law this type of waste should be incinerated and the Minister has questions to answer as to how this happened and what steps he plans to take to prevent the reoccurrence," said Fine Gael’s spokesman on health, Mr Gay Mitchell.