A landowner in Co. Waterford was recently fined by a district court judge for burying rubbish in a hole on his lands.
In a statement, Waterford City and County Council explained that it had brought the case when its inspectors discovered that the landowner had disposed of waste in an excavation on his land.
Further excavations undertaken by the council staff uncovered other waste buried on the land.
The landowner appeared before Waterford District Court on July 25 where he was fined €2,000 with further costs of €1,170.
Judge Kevin Staunton commented that while the landowner appeared to be a law abiding man, “we are well past the point of burying rubbish in holes”.
The council noted that the landowner pled guilty to the offence at the earliest opportunity and removed the waste for proper disposal.
Illegal dumping
Elsewhere, new legislation was signed into law by President Michael D Higgins last month which will allow for CCTV footage to be used by local authorities in illegal dumping prosecutions.
The new regulation forms part of the Circular Economy Act 2022.
The CCTV surveillance will only be allowed at a particular site for a certain period of time and the cameras must be overt; facial recognition and automatic number plate recognition technologies are specifically excluded.
Evidence obtained can only be used to prosecute crimes of littering and dumping.
To date, local authorities’ ability to use CCTV to identify and target offenders has been restricted due to data-protection regulations.
Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Ossian Smyth welcomed the legislation.