December 11th 2015

The good news in yesterday’s diary would appear to be great all round, but perhaps I foresee one impediment to the progress of this project! There is in the immediate location of the new project a buried secret. In 1993 The Prodigal headed up a team of locals and neighbours to tackle the Council on the issue of the continuance of the most appalling and disgusting tip head in Ireland. This dump was located approximately one mile from the site of the proposed new holiday venue. Trucks, vans, compactor lorries and all other type of vehicle would arrive at this dumpsite daily and deposit any and all type of hazardous material with absolutely no control.

Poisonous dyes from factories, cyanide waste, raw sewage from Council sewage schemes from several counties, animal offal often contaminated with tuberculosis and asbestos were among the types of material deposited here. The locals banded together and with yours truly assuming the role of catalyst, we took the bad guys on.

Local councillors abandoned us and the message from these gobshites was that this tip head was to serve the people of Longford for the next twenty five years. The campaign was huge and would merit a full book on the subject but the outcome was that after six months and tactical brilliance we hammered the Authority and forced the closure of all local dumps in the county. It also cost the Authority in excess of €3million. We were awarded all costs and retrieved more than €60,000 that we had raised by voluntary contributions which we gave back to the local community.

John Citizen 1------- Longford County Council nil, was the headline in the Longford Leader the following week.

During the course of the campaign it emerged that Longford County Council had illegally buried 10tons of blue asbestos in the tip head. This material had been used as lagging in the ESB Station in Lanesborough and should have been exported to Germany for disposal in the prescribed manner. Too expensive; poison the locals instead. In the consent order it was decreed that this toxic and potentially deadly material should be marked on site and designated as hazardous material for the protection of future generations against contamination.

When it came to effecting compliance with the Circuit Court Order it emerged that the Local Authority had no idea where it was buried. The recommended alternative was the excavation of the site, the location of the substance and its removal to be disposed of according to the Dept. of the Environment strictures.

Twenty two years later this order of the Court has never been complied with.

Time to do something about this situation. If the issue were raised as a public one or the legal route was pursued the chances were that in the public domain the development enterprise would be jeopardised. That is not the way to ‘win friends and influence people’.

I took a less predictable route. I decided to bypass all the obvious options and approach Frank Gearty directly, which I did. I contacted Frank and said I had some concerns about side issues which might impinge on the planning process for the Center Parcs development. After receiving instructions from the acting County Manager he agreed that we should meet to discuss the matter. I composed the following summary of the situation as I saw it.

“Sir,

On October 6th 1992 before Mr Justice Blaney at Longford Circuit Court a Consent Order was signed between Mr Edward Walsh BL, Counsel for the plaintiffs, (several) and Mr Esmonde Keane BL for the defendants (Longford County Council).

Item 8 in the schedule of following terms decreed that “Liberty to apply to the Circuit Court”. No time frame was set on this condition.

During the closure period of Ballymulvey Tip head and subsequent to its closure a number of site inspections were carried out by Jack O Sullivan an environmental scientist previously employed by the plaintiffs. These inspections took place in January and June 1993, in December 2001, (8 years after closure) and in December 2003, 10 years after closure. The extent of non-compliance with the individual items specified was very damning on the Local Authority. Between 10 and 16 items on the schedule list of the Order were never complied with and the situation remains the same today. All reports of non-compliance were notified to Longford County Council by Tormey and Company (the plaintiffs’ solicitors) who totally ignored them. As recently as 2013 I personally communicated with the County Secretary on the same issue of non-compliance with Court Orders, as follows:

“Access to and egress from the dump site was prohibited because of the burial of 3000 bags of 'blue' asbestos which was removed from the power station at Lanesborough, which fact was proven in court. The Local Authority was instructed to identify and suitably mark the location of the buried asbestos as a precaution to future generations. In twenty years the Council have failed to comply with this specific of the order and have agreed that they have no idea of its location.”

The fact remains Sir that after 22 years the Local Authority in Longford has failed, refused or neglected to comply with Court Orders of the most serious nature.

Consider the implications if these facts were known to the members of Longford Co. Council, the Dept. of the Environment, The President of the Circuit Court, the Dept. of Justice,  the Board of Centre Parcs, Coillte, An Bord Pleanala or any of the Environment Correspondents of the national media.

You can judge for yourself that in the worst case scenario Centre Parcs would have to abandon the project on health and safety grounds, they would probably sue the Local Authority on a multiplicity of grounds and the stipulations of the Court Order would still have to be complied with.

Ten tons of blue asbestos is no trivial matter and the fact that nobody is aware of its location or depth or indeed the suitability of the means of disposal a quarter of a century ago makes the matter one of the gravest concern.

There is further the issue of duty of disclosure.

I urge you to carefully consider this matter.

Today, I met Frank Gearty. Frank is a fine fellow, very amiable and pleasant and happens to be the principal in the law firm that counts Longford County Council among its clients. For a number of years The Prodigal has had issues with the Local Authority and this inevitably brought me into contact and more often than not, conflict with the law firm of E.C.Gearty & Co. However in more recent times Frank and I have had reason to be on the same side and I have come to respect this man and the way he does business.

Mr Gearty read the letter carefully and I also handed him copies of scientific reports from 2003 which clearly proved that the Court Orders had been ignored. We discussed the case and its implications for some time and the need to address the situation.

I understand perfectly well that while Mr Gearty receives instructions from the Local Authority he can merely advise them on matters and cannot insist that they pursue any particular line of action. He confirmed that he would correspond in detail with the acting County Manager and it would be up to her to determine the best approach to adopt.

We also discussed possible solutions to the problem which would not adversely affect the prospects of the development project from proceeding.

It must be remembered that both Frank Gearty and myself had stepped outside the sphere of normal legal protocol to act in the best interest of the County and its future.

Another factor which influenced my decision to adopt this approach was the fact that the County Manager was up to his neck in slurry with the Standards in Public Office over his shady dealings surrounding the sale of his own private property to a charitable organisation for more than twice its market value.

Contempt of court and non-compliance with a Circuit Court Order would have hardly helped his case.

Mr.Gearty agreed to forward comprehensive correspondence to the acting Manager pointing out aspects of the business that needed to be addressed. Mr Gearty did as he promised and two days later I received the response of the Local Authority through Frank’s office as follows.

GAB 05042

RE: Ballymulvey Landfill Site

Dear Mr Walsh

I acknowledge receipt of the documents which you handed me in the office last week. I confirm that on receipt of the documents and your submission, I contacted the council and sent them a copy of the information which you had given to me. In response, Mr Tom Murtagh, Senior Engineer, has written to me stating as follows:

"The entire area of the Ballymulvey Landfill was capped with imported capping material more than 20 years ago. In the summer of 2003, topsoil was placed on top of this capping layer and this was then planted. The landfill area is surrounded by a chain link fence. Longford County Council staff monitor the site on a regular basis and this includes the maintenance of fences. This is considered to be an appropriate way to manage this site as any asbestos waste material in such a location would not come to the surface and thereby cause a risk to the public. Landfill sites such this location are placed on a national register by the Environmental Protection Agency. Longford County Council have no plans to dispose of this site and will continue to monitor it. I trust this information will be of assistance to Mr Walsh."

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

Frank Gearty