Local authority exit ‘end of line’ for €350m incinerator
South Dublin County Council confirmed this week that it is looking at the options available in waste collection.
A spokesman for the council said the local authority was now testing the market to establish which option will be the most beneficial to the council and the customer.
The move follows the recent exit from the waste collection market by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.
The latest development means that two of the four Dublin local authorities proposing to construct a 600,000 tonne incinerator at Poolbeg have already or are planning to exit the waste market.
The IWMA, the representative of the private waste management industry in Ireland, claims the local authorities that are no longer in charge of municipal waste cannot direct private operators to deliver the waste to Poolbeg.
The association said what was being proposed at Poolbeg was already too large for the Dublin region and the debacle had already cost taxpayers a massive amount of money.
IWMA spokesperson Brendan Keane, said Dublin City Council had acted like King Canute in the debate, refusing to see that times had changed.
“An incinerator half the size would be appropriate for the Dublin region waste market.
“It’s time to wake up to this reality and to chart a way forward from this current mess,” he said.
The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) is investigating Environment Minister John Gormley’s two-year refusal to grant a licence to Covanta, the US company behind the Poolbeg development.
The investigation follows complaints that Mr Gormley was allowing personal and political concerns to expose the taxpayer to possible EU landfill fines and legal action from Covanta.
Covanta Europe president, Scott Whitney, has criticised a bill being rushed through the Dáil by the minister that will impose punitive levies on waste incineration of up to €120 a tonne.
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