Wicklow County Council faces ‘substantial’ legal fees on top of €17.91m clean-up spend at illegal landfill
The Wicklow PeopleThe Department of Environment has provided the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) with its most detailed account to date of the long-running Whitestown landfill remediation in west Wicklow.
The correspondence, issued by Secretary General Oonagh Buckley following her appearance before the PAC, offers a clearer picture of the financial, legal and environmental dimensions of one of Ireland’s largest illegal landfill sites.
Wicklow County Council has told the Department it has incurred €17.91 million in remediation costs since 2013, a figure that excludes what officials describe as a “substantial” amount in legal fees still to be agreed.
The department stresses that statutory responsibility for the remediation lies entirely with the local authority under the Waste Management Act, and that its own financial support has been confined to capital works.
It has now published a full year-by-year breakdown of grant allocations, confirming that €7,788,107.47 has been provided between 2013 and 2025. The earliest payments were issued during the initial phase of remediation, beginning with €958,428.53 in 2013 and followed by €2,293,799.90 in 2014.
Funding resumed in 2016 with €616,135.17. After a five-year gap, allocations restarted in 2021, when €428,320.30 was provided to support works required under High Court direction.
This was followed by €540,966.10 in 2022, €1,351,861.16 in 2023, €962,653.78 in 2024 and €635,942.53 in 2025. The department emphasises that none of these grants cover legal costs, which remain a matter for the council.
The correspondence confirms that the Whitestown project remains under active High Court oversight, with Wicklow County Council acting in accordance with a series of judgments that govern the remediation process.
An independent expert appointed by the court continues to oversee the council’s delivery of the required works, including site investigations and environmental monitoring. The department reiterates that its own role is limited to providing capital assistance under the National Landfill Remediation Grant Scheme.
The Department also provides new detail on the environmental monitoring regime in place at Whitestown.
Since the third quarter of 2018, quarterly monitoring of surface water, groundwater, leachate and landfill gas has been undertaken both on and off site. This level of monitoring is required to continue until twelve months after the remediation is complete.
The department highlights the comprehensive nature of the monitoring programme and the role of the court appointed expert in ensuring compliance with environmental protection standards.
The monitoring regime is “central to ensuring that the remediation delivers the optimal environmental outcome required by the High Court”.
Further operational detail is provided on the planned movement of waste from the site.
The department states that a number of outlets have been identified for the material, but that final confirmation of destination sites and volumes cannot be provided until testing has been carried out at intervals prescribed in the licences of the receiving facilities.
This testing commenced in mid-June 2026, and it’s expected that material will be moved to Ballaghveney Landfill, Drehid Landfill and the Walshestown inert facility, with the possibility of additional outlets being used depending on annual waste treatment capacity over the lifetime of the excavation works.