Incinerator stalled over helicopter safety concerns

The issue of helicopter safety is one of the key reasons behind An Bord Pleanála’s decision to defer, for the fourth time, a decision on whether to give the go-ahead to a controversial incinerator in Co Cork.

The planning authority has written to Indaver Ireland, the company proposing to build the €160m facility, seeking further information in relation to helicopter navigation safety on foot of concerns raised by the Department of Defence at an oral hearing into the project last year.

At the time, the department said proximity of the incinerator stack to the approach paths of Haulbowline Naval Base and Spike Island was “a matter of concern”.