A bonfire on waste ground beside hazardous material in south Belfast, July 2025. Photo by Press Eye
Hundreds of tonnes of deadly asbestos have been found at 224 sites since 2018, with a clean-up cost to the taxpayer of almost £400,000.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) has also confirmed that around 120 tonnes of asbestos remained at the controversial Meridi Street bonfire site when it was lit last July.
The presence of asbestos long pre-dated the 2025 bonfire. The NIEA and Belfast City Council have been aware of asbestos on that site since at least 2011.
Figures obtained by The Detail show this was not an isolated incident, with large amounts of asbestos found at sites across Northern Ireland in recent years.
In some cases, the material remained on site for months before being removed.
Although the average removal time was 45 days, asbestos wasn’t removed for three months in around 20 cases. Five locations were left contaminated for more than a year.
In a handful of areas NIEA was unable to specify whether the asbestos had been officially removed from the private sites.
Any delays in removal are significant because exposure to even a small amount of asbestos can have long-lasting effects on health, increasing the likelihood of developing a variety of cancers, according to the UK Health and Security Agency.
Sites where asbestos was discovered. Data: NIEA. Image: The Detail
The figures covering January 2018 to January 2025 were obtained through a freedom of information request.
Almost half of all asbestos found in that period was in Mid Ulster (43%), with 150 tonnes of asbestos found at one site in Cookstown in June 2023.
Lisburn and Castlereagh accounted for the second-highest proportion of asbestos found (19%) across Northern Ireland, followed by Newry Mourne and Down (17%).
A site in Camlough, County Armagh, was found to contain 30 tonnes of asbestos that took the NIEA eight months to remove, while six tonnes remained on a site in Coleraine, County Derry, for 16 months before removal.
NIEA-arranged clean-ups have cost the taxpayer £397,848 since 2018.
In cases of asbestos located on private land, the NIEA said they aim to work with the landowner to arrange the appropriate removal and disposal of asbestos according to the relevant legislation.
Responding to the length of time it took to remove asbestos from sites across the north, ranging from days to months, a DAERA spokesman said:
“There cannot be a single prescribed framework for the remediation of asbestos incidents. The Northern Ireland Environment Agency determines the most appropriate course of action based on the specific circumstances of each case, including the nature, extent and location of the asbestos contamination.”
Bonfire
One of the most prominent recent asbestos incidents was the Meridi Street bonfire site in south Belfast.
The site in the Village area hit the headlines last summer when a bonfire was built on the land, despite warnings that there was a significant amount of asbestos present nearby.
The NIEA has now confirmed that around 120 tonnes of asbestos were on site when the bonfire was lit last July.
That has since been removed after notices were served on the landowner, however the NIEA said that “small fragments” remain on site.
The NIEA, Belfast City Council, and the landowner have been critised for the delays in removing the asbestos from the site.
In 2011, Belfast City Council took enforcement action on the then-owners of the site and ordered them to have it cleared of asbestos.
This did not happen, so Belfast City Council had to hire its own contractors to carry out the work of removing 66 tonnes of absetos waste from the site, at a cost of just over £287,000.
The landowners at the time received suspended sentences in 2014 for dumping tonnes of asbestos waste at the site. They sold the site in 2017.
Almost 15 years later, only half the cost has been recouped by the Council from the landowners.
A council spokesman said: “There were two separate charges on the land of £143,750.43, one for each owner. One was discharged in 2017. The second part of the land has changed ownership. On this, the statutory charge remains in place, and we hope to recover it from the landowners.”
A NIEA spokesman said a criminal investigation into the presence of asbestos on the Meridi site was opened in May 2025, which remains active.
When questioned on the long and protracted history of removing asbestos from this site, the NIEA said:
“All situations are different. Removal of asbestos is a highly specialised, complex, and sensitive process and the site had to be fully vacated and secured before work could proceed. The circumstances between May and July 2025 meant it was not possible to conduct a full remediation of the site as it could not be secured to allow for this to be completed”.
Eve O'Neill is a journalist in Belfast