Northern Ireland, like the rest of the United Kingdom, has for many years been almost totally reliant on landfill for the disposal of its waste. The EU Landfill Directive, which came into force in 1999, set binding targets restricting the amount of household waste that can be disposed of in landfill sites. The Directive also required Member States to draw up plans to reduce the amount of other waste materials being disposed of in this way. This has required these States to reassess their waste management practices and to consider alternatives, such as increasing recycling and recovery levels.

Northern Ireland has tackled the issue of waste management in a positive manner. Following widespread consultation with key stakeholder groups, it was the first part of the United Kingdom to develop a Waste Management Strategy setting out a vision for Northern Ireland as a 'centre of excellence in resource and waste management'.

It is regrettable, therefore, to find that implementation of the Strategy has been patchy and, if action is not taken quickly, Northern Ireland may fail to meet its first major EU target in 2010 and, as a consequence, incur substantial financial penalties.

The absence of strong leadership by Northern Ireland departments has been a major factor in causing this unsatisfactory state of affairs. This has been most marked in the failure to live up to a commitment to use the substantial purchasing power of the public sector to influence the market for recycled products.

Most Northern Ireland departments have failed to make progress on implementing the Waste Management Strategy, and there appears to be a tendency to leave this to the Department of the Environment. This Department has an important role in leading within Government on the issue, but transforming Northern Ireland into a centre of excellence in waste management is not a task for one department, but for the Government as a whole. Other departments must start to pull their weight.

Northern Ireland is now confronted with a race against time to meet its statutory obligations and, more generally, to develop more sustainable waste practices. Three main challenges need to be tackled immediately:

• A crisis in planning has led to severe delays in reaching decisions on applications for waste management facilities which has, in turn, delayed the provision of vital infrastructure, and may have alienated potential providers of facilities
• Existing landfill capacity is rapidly being exhausted. Replacement landfill sites and infrastructure to provide alternatives to landfill will take time to put in place. Planning for, and procuring, this infrastructure now appears to be seriously behind schedule
• No clear estimate has been made of the level of funding required for waste management, and there is an absence of a funding plan to deliver the necessary infrastructure over the life of the Waste Management Strategy. In the absence of greater clarity over the financial resources required, local authorities are uncertain about what proportion of funding needs to be raised through rates.

The problem of illegal dumping of waste both within Northern Ireland and from the Republic of Ireland has added to the challenges faced by the Department of the Environment. Strong action has been taken, but changes in legislation may be needed to make this more effective. The financial incentive to dump waste illegally, because of differences in the cost of landfilling on either side of the border, is unlikely to disappear in the short-term.

Improving Northern Ireland's performance in the future cannot be achieved solely by Government action. We look to all stakeholders to take up the challenge and take constructive action now to deliver the vision in the original strategy.