COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

south dublin county council crest

MEETING OF TALLAGHT AREA COMMITTEE (1)

Monday, February 21, 2011

QUESTION NO. 1

QUESTION: Councillor J. Hannon

"To ask the Manager to provide a comprehensive report on the current status of the former Cleanbuild site at Bohernabreena Road, with particular reference to the following:

Costs incurred since 2008, including all legal costs

Costs, if any, recovered

Outcome of court proceedings, to date, and confirmation of any such proceedings not yet heard?"

REPLY:

Court proceedings in the Council's case against Clean Build and others have been adjourned until March 7th, accordingly there has been no outcome to date.  The costs incurred to date fall under three headings - waste disposal costs,  expert technical costs and legal costs.  The relevant costs are as follows  :

In December 2008 the Council removed 850 tonnes of mixed waste from the site as pollution of the Dodder by run-off from this waste stockpile appeared to be imminent.  The cost to remove and dispose of this waste was €130,000.  The Council is pursuing the recovery of this sum through the court proceedings.

The Council engaged consultants with expertise in environmnetal risk assessment of contaminated land to carry out such a risk assessment on the Clean Build site.  This work has been carried out to the standard as set down in the EPA Code of practice for Environmental Risk Assessment of Unauthorised Waste Disposal Sites.  This work has been completed at a cost of €117,080 to date.  Further costs will arise under this heading as a result of the consultants attendance in court for part of the hearing.

Legal costs are unknown as yet.  The case has been heard over six days in the High Court thus far, however it is not possible to say at this point how many more days will be required to complete the hearing.  It should be noted that the case is joined to proceedings taken by the landowner against Clean Build.  For these reasons the full extent of legal costs in the case cannot be determined as yet.