Company suspends plans for incinerators
Belgian-owned company Indaver blamed the Government for the decision, saying ministers failed to put in place measures to ensure waste was burned instead of being buried at landfill sites.
Campaigners welcomed the decision by Indaver but insisted the company could still go back on its latest decision and resurrect plans for the incinerators at Carranstown, Co Meath, and Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.
“Nothing has changed as far as we’re concerned. Indaver still has planning permission for Ringaskiddy and a waste licence,” said Mary O’Leary of the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE) action group.
CHASE is bringing a High Court action over the granting of planning permission for the incinerator while residents in Ringaskiddy are seeking a judicial review of a decision to grant the firm a waste permit.
According to yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, Indaver said lack of Government action on waste meant rubbish is cheaper to dump at the tip rather than recycle or deal with in other ways.
Indaver Ireland chief John Ahern said recycling, as well as incineration, would help the country deal more effectively with the growing amount of waste being generated. In Ringaskiddy and Carranstown, the firm had planned to burn waste to generate electricity, helping the country reduce amounts going to the tip.
“The Government does not seem serious about encouraging alternatives to landfill and so major international companies are not interested,” said Mr Ahern.
He said individual Government ministers had publicly acknowledged the need for incinerators to deal with the country’s growing amount of waste.
“Bertie Ahern has also been vocal on the subject yet policies and plans are not being implemented on the ground. There is a lack of control and direction,” he said.
Indaver claimed the Government needed to increase the €15-per-tonne tax on rubbish sent to landfill to ensure alternatives, such as recycling and burning, become more commercially viable.
The firm is instead planning to invest in similar facilities in Britain where the tax is set at €36-a-tonne to encourage waste firms and councils to recycle or deal with their waste differently.
Despite its decision on the incinerators, Indaver said it was committed to its other waste management plants, which deal with recycled household and electronic waste.
Indaver yesterday said it would continue to ensure the company obtained all the necessary permits for the Co Meath and Co Cork incinerators to go ahead.
But the company is suspending plans to build the plants until the Government puts into place measures to discourage landfill dumping and favour incineration, a spokeswoman said.
Yesterday, the Department of Environment defended its stance on waste policy despite the criticism by Indaver Ireland. “Government policy on landfill and waste management will not be determined by the actions of a single company. It will be based on the public good,” said a spokesman for Environment Minister Dick Roche.
