It has been reported this month, that taxpayers have been left to foot a staggering bill to clean up household waste from the Republic which has been illegally dumped in Northern Ireland. Environment minister David Cairns revealed that the cost of cleaning up the 250,000 tonnes of rubbish from across the border could be around £30 million. He also announced that the Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) is on the verge of launching a new computer system which will record dumping hot-spots and track serial fly-tippers. The "Flycapture" system has already been used successfully in Britain, where it has been running since 2004. Local authorities submit monthly reports on fly-tipping and the information is then used to provide intelligence for enforcement officers with regard to illegal waste dumping.
More than 50 illegal landfill sites have been discovered in Northern Ireland in the last three years containing rubbish from the republic, mainly in border areas. During 2004/05, the EHS received around 1,200 reports of illegal dumping each year, and so far in 2006 there have been 1,206. An EHS spokesman added that regular liaison meetings between themselves and their counterparts in the South were being held in a bid to tackle the problem.
In similar news, a man from Clogher, County Tyrone was convicted at Omagh Crown Court on 17 November 2006, for three breaches of the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order SI 1997/2778. It was estimated that between 8 December 2003 and 20 January 2004, over 11,000 tonnes of biodegradable household waste, again originating from the Republic, had been buried on his site. In addition, polluting leachate was escaping from it. John McKenna of Old Monaghan Road, will be sentenced on 19 January 2007.
