Removal of ‘6,000 gallons of sewage per day’ from Wicklow holiday village sparks fresh concern
The Wicklow PeopleA dispute over an alleged unauthorised development erupted again at this month’s meeting of Wicklow County Council, as Cllr Gerry O’Neill sharply criticised the slow pace of High Court enforcement, and raised new concerns about the daily removal of thousands of gallons of sewage from the site.
The exchange highlighted growing frustration among elected members and residents who say they cannot understand why this major planning case has stalled, while a similar situation across the county border was resolved in a fraction of the time.
Cllr O’Neill contrasted the Kippure Lodge and Holiday Village case with a development in south Dublin where, he said, a builder had installed foundations and placed prefabricated units for 28 houses without permission.
According to Cllr O’Neill, Dublin authorities moved swiftly, bringing the matter before the courts and securing an order last week requiring the developer to remove all structures within 10 days.
Cllr O’Neill said the comparison was stark and increasingly difficult to explain to the public.
“We’re sitting, we’re waiting,” he said, adding that Wicklow County Council was still “looking for a court date” despite the scale of the works at Kippure, where 65 units are alleged to have been constructed without planning permission.
He acknowledged that the delays were not necessarily the fault of the council, but insisted that the contrast with Dublin’s rapid enforcement was fuelling local anger.
Cllr O’Neill then turned to what he described as an equally troubling issue: the daily removal of sewage from Kippure Lodge.
He told the meeting that “6,000 gallons of sewage per day” were being transported from the site by a company based in Arklow. Over the course of a week, he said, the volume exceeded 40,000 gallons.
He asked the chief executive to clarify where the waste was being discharged and whether the council was receiving payment if it was being processed at a Wicklow facility.
“There would be a concern there,” he said, “that we are subsidising that type of money.”
In response council chief executive Emer O’Gorman acknowledged the councillor’s concerns, but stressed that the delays in the Kippure case were outside the council’s control.
She said the matter had been “complex from the start” and that the local authority had been “pushing at every opportunity to get an early hearing.”
She added that the presiding judge had apologised for the difficulty in listing the case due to resource constraints within the High Court.
“These are beyond our control,” she said, emphasising that the council continued to seek the earliest possible date for the hearing.
On the question of sewage removal, Ms O’Gorman said that any operator transporting waste would require an EPA licence or a discharge licence.
She told councillors that she did not yet have details of where the waste was being taken, but said the council would investigate the matter. “We can certainly look into that for you,” she said.
The Kippure development has been a contentious issue for years. It has been used to accommodate asylum seekers, adding a further layer of public scrutiny and political sensitivity.
While councillors have repeatedly expressed frustration at the pace of enforcement, the council has maintained that it has pursued every available avenue and that the bottleneck lies within the court system.