Council boss rejects ‘white elephant’ claims over landfill site
Earlier this week, the council decided to close the landfill.
A special report for councillors revealed the net loss of closing the facility will increase from more than €1.6 million in 2011 to €2.025m the next year, falling back to €1.745m in 2013 and 2014 and €1.2m in 2015.
Mr Coughlan defended the original decision to locate the landfill away from the main centres of population in the county, amid repeated assertions from residents it should never have been sited in the Inagh area.
Mr Coughlan pointed out that more than 330,000 tonnes of waste had been landfilled at the site since 2003, although the annual tonnage had fallen from a high of 58,139 to about 21,000 tonnes this year.
Former Ballyduffbeg Liaison Committee chairperson Perry Long claimed the facility was a “white elephant” as residents had consistently argued landfilling in Inagh would eventually prove to be uneconomical.
Ms Long recalled an EU directive on landfill was enacted into Irish legislation in August 2002, two months before the licence for Ballyduffbeg was approved which set out a targeted reduction of biodegradable waste from 2000 to 2016.
She claimed Inagh was never a suitable location for a landfill because it was located away from the main centres of population in Limerick and south-east Clare.
But Mr Coughlan noted the landfill generated an income of €35.6m against expenditure of €26.5m since it was opened in September 2002.
“It is easy to say in hindsight, it was a white elephant. I am confident the decision taken at the time to build the landfill in Inagh ... was taken in the best interests of the council and the county.
“Ballyduffbeg would still be in business if market conditions hadn’t changed significantly to the extent they have, if the private sector didn’t become aggressively involved in landfill and if people weren’t recycling as much material,” he said.
