EPA denies incinerator health risks

THE head of the country's environmental watchdog has rubbished claims that the Government's health adviser asked it not to licence two incinerators in the absence of a health impact study.

Speaking yesterday on RTÉ's This Week programme, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director Pádraig Larkin said its inspector's report clearly outlined how public health is addressed in the licensing process.

When asked if anti-incineration campaigner Mary O'Leary was right in saying the EPA had ignored the Government's own health adviser, Mr Larkin replied: "No, she is not right, and if you read in fact the inspector's report of Dr Jonathan Durham, who made a very substantial report on the oral hearing, you will see argued very cogently there the issue of public health and how it's dealt with in the licensing process."