More than 200 sites across Northern Ireland have been found to contain hundreds of tonnes of asbestos since 2018, with the public purse footing a clean-up bill of almost £400,000.

The figures, covering January 2018 to January 2025, were released by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) following a freedom of information request.

They show that 224 locations were contaminated with the hazardous material. In some cases, asbestos waste remained in place for months before removal, with five sites left uncleaned for over a year. The average removal time was 45 days, but around 20 cases took three months or longer.

Mid Ulster accounted for 43 percent of all asbestos discovered, including 150 tonnes at a single Cookstown site in June 2023. Lisburn and Castlereagh had 19 percent, and Newry, Mourne and Down 17 percent.

In Camlough, County Armagh, 30 tonnes of asbestos took eight months to remove, while six tonnes at a Coleraine site in County Londonderry remained for 16 months before clearance.

The biggest single incident involved the Meridi Street bonfire site in south Belfast. The NIEA confirmed that around 120 tonnes of asbestos were still on the land when a bonfire was lit there in July 2024. The material has since been removed after enforcement notices were served, though small fragments persist. A criminal investigation was opened in May 2025.

Asbestos contamination at the Meridi Street site has been known since at least 2011. Belfast City Council took enforcement action that year and, when the owners failed to comply, spent over £287,000 on a contractor-led clearance that removed 66 tonnes. The landowners received suspended sentences in 2014 for illegal dumping and sold the site in 2017. The council has recouped only around half its costs so far.

The overall clean-up cost to taxpayers across all sites was £397,848. The NIEA stated that there is no single fixed timeline for remediation because each case depends on specific circumstances, including the nature, extent and location of the contamination.