The Department of the Environment has asked the Criminal Assets Bureau to investigate the operators of illegal waste dumps, starting in Co Wicklow.
This follows the revelation that hazardous hospital wastes had been dumped at two unauthorised landfill sites in the county, at Whitestown and Coolnamadra, both north of Baltinglass.
"We want the CAB to come in and look at this whole area," a spokesman for the Department said yesterday . "And clearly, Co Wicklow has to be the immediate target."
He said the CAB, which has scored significant successes against organised crime, would get full co-operation from the Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Wicklow County Council.
The Department is concerned about the proliferation of illegal dumping of hazardous and other wastes by unscrupulous operators seeking to evade charges of up to £90 per tonne at licensed landfills.
It is also pressing Wicklow County Council to proceed against those involved in dumping waste at disused quarries in Whitestown and Coolnamadra by indictment in the Circuit Court.
Under the 1996 Waste Management Act, anyone convicted of operating an unauthorised landfill site could face a fine of up to £10 million and/or 10 years' imprisonment.
If prosecuted in summary proceedings in the District Court, the maximum fine is only £1,500, which the Department does not regard as a sufficient deterrent to criminality in the waste sector.
Speaking on RT╔ radio yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, expressed his horror at the scale and nature of the illegal dumping discovered in Co Wicklow.
He also gave an assurance that if there was any danger to public health from the illegal dumps contaminating water supplies to Dublin from Poulaphouca reservoir, people would be alerted promptly.
"I share the public's concern following media reports today that further instances of unauthorised dumping of waste, including waste from hospitals, have been identified in Wicklow. This activity is clearly illegal and grossly irresponsible", Mr Dempsey said.
"Dumping of clinical waste is, because of its nature, particularly reprehensible, and the full rigours of the law must be applied to anyone found guilty of carrying out, or colluding with, such activity", he declared.
"I am anxious that where a local authority uncovers evidence of systematic, organised, large-scale dumping activity, it should be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions, to be prosecuted as the serious offence that it is, rather than dealt with as a summary offence".
The Minister said local authorities had direct functional responsibility for oversight of waste activities and enforcement of relevant legislation.
He urged them to use the "very significant powers" at their disposal to counter illegalities.
