CONFUSION surrounded the fate of the controversial Poolbeg incinerator last night after Tánaiste Michael McDowell said the project had collapsed, only to be contradicted by Dublin City Council.

Planning permission was sought today for an incinerator on Dublin’s Poolbeg Peninsula designed to provide electricity for 50,000 homes and heat 60,000 houses.

ROYAL Bank of Scotland Group, Denmark’s Elsam, and a group of buy-out firms made acquisitions totalling €5.7 billion in Europe’s busiest day for takeovers this year, benefiting advisers such as Merrill Lynch & Co and UBS.