PAC hears €17.91 million spent on remediation costs at Ireland’s ‘largest illegal landfill site’
The Wicklow PeopleFor 25 years, the illegal Whitestown landfill near Baltinglass has stood as one of the State’s most enduring environmental failures, a sprawling dump of domestic, industrial and medical waste that Wicklow County Council closed in 2001, but has not fully remediated.
A recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing has now placed the saga back under scrutiny, with Sinn Féin TD and PAC chair John Brady warning that “decades of failure” have left the vast majority of waste still buried, costs spiralling, and accountability lacking.
The committee heard that despite millions of euros in public expenditure, lengthy legal proceedings and repeated interventions from State bodies, the fundamental problems at Whitestown remain unresolved.
Deputy Brady opened the exchange by describing Whitestown as “the largest illegal dump ever discovered in the State”, noting that it operated from 1979 to 2001 and contained “all sorts of equipment, medical, construction and domestic waste and all sorts of very toxic materials”.
He said the failures at Whitestown had been “systemic” and had persisted “not just over the 25 years, but over the many decades when the dump was in use”.
He said contaminants had leaked into adjoining watercourses, including the River Slaney, and highlighted the discovery of syringes, drip bags, surgical gowns and industrial chemicals.
He told the committee that the people of Wicklow had endured the consequences of this environmental disaster “for more than a generation”.
The PAC revisited the High Court’s 2017 judgment, delivered after a 53-day hearing, which found that Wicklow County Council’s earlier €3.9 million remediation attempt was a “botched job” that left “93pc of the waste still remained on site”.
Deputy Brady said that “we are at a point where we may be in a position to go in and start removing some of the material”.
Department secretary general Oonagh Buckley confirmed that Wicklow County Council has incurred €17.91 million in remediation costs since 2013.
Of that, €7.8 million was provided by the Department through the National Landfill Remediation Grant Scheme. However, she acknowledged that these figures exclude what the Department described as a “substantial legal bill” that has yet to be agreed.
Ms Buckley also confirmed that the council now estimates the remaining remediation works will cost between €32 million and €38 million over the period 2026 to 2031, with previous estimates citing figures of up to €45 million.
She said the Department has set aside €8.25 million this year to support tendering processes, capital works and material outlets, adding: “We would very much like to spend that money, since I have been criticised for not spending money.”
Ms Buckley outlined the current status of the project, noting that site acquisition was completed in November 2024 following landownership complications.
Tendering processes for capital works and material outlets were undertaken last year, and “screening, lab testing, site mobilisation and preparatory works have been undertaken thus far in 2026”.
She said monthly oversight meetings now take place between the Department, Wicklow County Council and the Local Government Management Agency to monitor progress, financial planning and landfill capacity forecasting.
She also acknowledged that Ireland has “a limited amount of landfill capacity” and that the Department would have to “find somewhere to put the waste”.
When asked whether the waste would be retained in Ireland or exported, she said she would have to check and revert with an answer to that query.
Deputy Brady asked about monitoring arrangements, saying high levels of leachate continued to enter the River Slaney, and that the site lay on the boundary of a special area of conservation.
He said the EPA had informed him that “the only part of the process it has been involved in is its review of the remediation plan”.
Ms Buckley said she believed Wicklow County Council carried out monitoring and that an independent expert appointed by the court, Arup, was overseeing compliance with the High Court order.
Comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy
The comptroller and auditor general Seamus McCarthy also intervened, reminding the committee that he had previously highlighted Whitestown in a 2020 report.
He said the site was distinct from municipal landfills because it was an illegal dump containing hazardous waste.
“One of the difficulties here is there was contamination as well, so you are dealing with hazardous waste as opposed to normal municipal waste,” he said.
Ms Buckley agreed, noting that Ireland has “a couple of hundred of these sites across Ireland”, referring to old pre‑environmental standards landfills, though Whitestown is uniquely complex.
Deputy Brady said the lack of transparency from Wicklow County Council was a major concern.
“Unfortunately, it has proven near impossible to get any figure for costs from Wicklow County Council, which is unhelpful and does not give any confidence in the process to date or in transparency,” he said.
He asked the Department to provide a full breakdown of the €7.2 million previously allocated in grants and the specific purposes for which the funding was used.
Ms Buckley said she could provide that information.
Mr Brady said the PAC needed line of sight on all expenditure, including the legal bill and any further liabilities that may arise.
He also said the council must provide a detailed breakdown of the €17.91 million spent since 2013 and the €7.8 million in departmental grants, along with a clear explanation of what each allocation was used for.
He raised the question of who would ultimately pick up the tab.
“If it is the council, what impact will this have on other functions, as the council budget is already severely overstretched. This needs to be urgently clarified.”
He said the council’s projected €32–€38 million cost for the remaining works must be accompanied by “a detailed breakdown of this proposed spend and clear timelines for progress”.
Ms Buckley said the department was committed to supporting the council and working closely with it to ensure compliance with the High Court order.
She noted that the department had put in place funding to allow tendering processes to proceed, and said the department would seek to aggregate cost information from the EPA and provide it to the committee.
In response to a request for comment on the matter, Wicklow County Council said it could not respond fully as the case “remains under active review by the High Court”.
The council did not provide any further detail on costs, monitoring or timelines, citing the ongoing legal oversight.
Deputy Brady said he will now write formally to Wicklow County Council seeking a detailed response on all outstanding points.
“After decades of delays, millions of euros in public expenditure, failed remediation works and lengthy legal proceedings, the fundamental problems at Whitestown still persist,” he said.
“The people of Wicklow deserve full transparency, proper accountability for every euro spent, and certainty that this environmental disaster will finally be resolved,” he added.