Mr. Brendan Kelly
Killan
Woodlawn
Ballinasloe
County Galway
Republic of Ireland

I wish to petition the European Parliament regarding the possibility of having a "super dump" for the whole of Connacht forced onto the small local community I live in.

According to reports I have heard from trusted neighbours, a company called Celtic Waste have plans (which are now in an advanced stage I am told) to purchase land from five local residents - at prices which are far above the normal market value.

Apart from socially stigmatising the whole local area in a very major way, I believe that if this project is allowed to go ahead, there are likely to be all sorts of very serious environmental problems as well: such as (for example) air and water pollution, and major road traffic problems.

Some simple calculations (based on information which I believe is accurate) suggest that if the Celtic Waste plans are implemented, they are likely to make abnormally large financial profits from this local site. I estimate that at a charge of EUROS 100 per tonne of rubbish which they dump, 30 tonnes per truck load, and 150 daily truckloads, Celtic Waste stand to make gross profits in the region of EUROS 450,000 PER DAY - with relatively little expense for them in the way of running costs. Leaving aside the five people who look set to profit from the sale of their land to Celtic Waste, the rest of the people in my community will get little or nothing that I know of in the way of benefits. For the rest of us living in my community, it looks as though this project will be almost entirely a matter of extremely serious drawbacks and long term disadvantages.

On November 16th 2001, I attended a public meeting in Kilconnell which was sponsored by a local group of people opposed to Celtic Waste building a super dump in the area. With the exception of Junior Minister Mr. Noel Tracey T.D., this particular meeting was attended (as I recall it) by ALL of the local and central government politicians who have been elected to represent the people of East Galway. One after another they each stood up and related that there was NOTHING they could do to help the local people: because of the Waste Management (Amendment) Bill 2001 - which has since became law, and which removes power from local politicians to have ANY say in the location of such super dumps. Instead, it seems that final responsibility for such major decisions (which adversely affect local communities such as mine) has now been transferred entirely to unelected local government managers.

All things considered, and as I trust you will understand, I cannot help feeling that the conflicting situation I have tried to very briefly outline above represents some kind of political and legal corruption on a MASSIVE scale. Also, and more importantly, I believe that if there is not some kind of very efficient intervention by The European Parliament, the present situation may lead on to massive financial corruption at some later date: assuming of course that something of this nature has not already taken place ???

Also, and according to statements made at the November 16th 2001 meeting in Kilconnell by local politician Mr. Paul Connaughton T.D., the Government has already paid millions of EUROS of taxpayers money to a firm of waste management consultants named "MC O’Sullivan & Company Consulting Engineers" for the set of plans which apparently gave rise to the Waste Management (Amendment) Bill 2001.

I feel I should make it clear that, in my experience, it would be impossible for me (or anybody else in my local community) to find lawyers here in the Republic of Ireland who would challenge the validity of the new waste management law which appears to be in breach Article 28A of the Constitution. Consequently, I believe it is essential that I now seek help urgently with this problem from outside of The Republic of Ireland (through The European Parliament).

I feel I should also inform you of the following points:

1) As a direct result of the anger and frustration that has been building up in me over a period of years regarding several local environment issues of the kind outlined above, I intend to run for election as a Green Party candidate in the May 2002 General Election here in the Republic of Ireland. I was nominated to run for The Green Party on January 19th 2002, and I am at present waiting for the ratification of my nomination by the Green Party Head Office in Dublin.

2) Research information I have looked at suggests that there is no need whatsoever for super dumps in East Galway, and I am at present looking into the possibility of my own parish (Bullaun & New Inn) and two neighbouring parishes (Kilconnell and Cappatagle) looking after ALL of their own waste material. There are at present two local urban recycling schemes in operation (one in Galway City, and one in Ballinasloe Town) which I believe might be possible to adapt for rural purposes.

For a limited period of time at least, the kind of scheme I have in mind probably would involve the use of a very small landfill site in my own area. Subject to receiving the necessary planning permission, I believe I could find such a site, and I have a definite place in mind. If the experimental scheme I am thinking about proved successful, I see no reason why similar schemes could not be replicated in most parishes throughout East Galway, and indeed throughout the whole of Connacht. In this way, I believe the alleged need for a super dump in any part of Connacht could be completely avoided.

4) Leading headlines in today’s edition of the Connacht Tribune Newspaper relate that local Police Superintendent Frank Gunther is investigating the source of threatening letters received recently in the post by two local people who oppose the Celtic Waste plans for a super dump in our area. It seems the anonymous letters in question contain threats of physical violence. It is also stated in the same article that down payments of EUROS 500,000 have been paid by Celtic Waste to the present owners of the land they plan to use for the local dump. To me, this looks like an example of how unfair law, mixed up with greed, can - given the chance - lead on to violence of different kinds.

This is a matter which I hope the European Union will have thoroughly investigated before too long: particularly as there are responsible medical research reports now in circulation which suggest that the risk of very serious birth defects (including Down’s Syndrome) is some 40% higher for pregnant women living within three kilometres of hazardous waste landfill sites. (Source of the information in this paragraph: Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor, January 25th 2002 edition of The Irish Times Newspaper.)

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 My hope is that this letter will - without undue delay - give rise to a full scale investigation by the European Parliament of what I strongly suspect is a corrupt arrangement between "big business" and "big government" to create huge benefits for themselves through the avoidable use of super dumps. And, in the process, it appears that the group of people concerned (which includes senior State lawyers) have no qualms whatsoever about SYSTEMATICALLY depriving ordinary citizens such as myself of the benefits and protection provided for ALL citizens in our written Constitution: through the creation of a waste management law which appears to remove a very important part of our Constitution. (As you may already know, changes to our written Constitution require a national referendum, and there has NOT been any referendum in this case.)

For the immediate future, I would be very grateful if you could take careful note the contents of this letter, and let me have a written acknowledgement of receipt for it within the coming 14 days please.

Yours sincerely, 

Mr. Brendan Kelly.