Haulage company contracted to county council site fined after pleading guilty to using unauthorised disposal facility
A Co Meath haulage company that dumped waste at a site without having a waste licence for that location has had a fine imposed on it.
GFH Farrelly with an address at Knock, Castletown, was prosecuted by Meath County Council at Navan District Court for failure to have a licence for waste recovery activity at Grangegoddan, Glebe, Kells, on 2nd December 2024. The company pleaded guilty.
Prosecuting solicitor David McEntee told the court that on the date in question the company was hauling waste from a road works site operated by Meath County Council. Rather than bringing the material to an authorised facility for the disposal of waste the company dumped the waste at Grangegoddan. The material consisted most of soil and stone but also concrete, pipes and tar.
Mr McEntee said there were previous convictions with that company. It had a conviction in Navan Court last month under road safety legislation and that was to do with the company not having a proper road haulage licence. It was fined €2,000 with €800 costs. There were a number of other charges relating to waste management and road safety offences.
Some offences were related to an associate company of GFH Farrelly. There had also been convictions against Gavin Farrelly, a director of the company. Defending solicitor Ms Hayes said the company had been contracted to work on two projects at the same time. The waste from the road project was to go to a waste facility in Cavan. At the same time the Farrelly company was contracted to build up a foundation on the site at Grangegoddan which was a flood plain. They were moving soil and stone from a site at Clonsilla to Grangegoddan. The solicitor said the trucks had to stay on site and constantly moving soil and stone as the road was being laid in front of them. In order to clear one of their trucks to continue the road work they temporarily placed material at the Grangegoddan site and she was instructed to say that that material only stayed on the site for 30 minutes and it was subsequently moved to the waste site in Cavan. The docket for the removal to Cavan had been produced to the county council’s solicitor. She said there had been “a technical breach” of the legislation.
Mr McEntee agreed with Ms Hayes that the material had been moved from Grangegoddan on the same day.
Ms Hayes said only soil and stones had been on the site but not concrete, pipes or tarmacadam. Judge Eirinn McKiernan imposed a fine of €500 with €1,000 costs on the company with four months to pay.
- Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme