Greens reiterate call for incinerator ban

The Green Party has reiterated its call for a ban on the incineration of municipal waste, just days after An Bord Pleanala approved plans for a controversial €80m incinerator near Duleek in Co Meath.

The party has published several amendments to the Government's Protection of the Environment Bill and said the Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrats coalition should adopt a "zero waste" strategy.

Green Party spokesman Ciaran Cuffe said: "At the moment, the Environmental Protection Agency grants licences to pollute.

"We think that we should look beyond that and, instead of granting more licences, we should safeguard the clean and green image of Ireland and find alternatives that don't cause damage to our agriculture industry, to our tourism industry and that result in rubbish being reused rather than sent to landfill or incinerated."