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A farmer who said he would search through illegally dumped rubbish on his farm found it burnt to ashes when he returned two days later.
Speaking on RTE’s Countrywide earlier in the year, tillage and livestock farmer Michael Doran from Co Wexford said he was targeted on two separate occasions by dumpers after Christmas.
Bags of rubbish, mattresses, old clothes, children’s toys and household appliances were among the items dumped. At the time, Doran said it was his intention to search the bags in an effort to identify those responsible.
I went down on the Monday and someone had put a match to it and burnt all the rubbish
However, after the show aired on Saturday, and in a bid to prevent identification, the rubbish was reduced to a pile of ashes and burnt metal.
“I went down on the Monday and someone had put a match to it and burnt all the rubbish,” Michael said.
He said the farm had been preparing for calving and it had been a struggle to find the time to conduct the search.
Men in vans
Michael said there were a number of theories about where the rubbish had come from. Some people said they had seen adverts on various platforms from men in vans offering to take rubbish away for €25 to €30.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true,” Michael warned. “That rubbish is being offloaded on properties like mine.”
In a bid to tackle the issue, county councils are to introduce an inspection system similar to the TV licence. Homeowners will be asked to produce evidence that they are disposing of their waste legally to cut down on “men in vans”-type operations.
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