New campaign bids to block incinerator

A new campaign is to be launched today in a bid to stop a 500,000 tonne incinerator being built on Dublin’s Poolbeg Peninsula.

Residents from nearby areas in Dublin south east have vowed to stop the development of the incinerator in Ringsend area.

“Local residents have suffered foul odours from the sewage treatment plant for the last three years and this community stands united against another costly, foolish and untested plan to build an incinerator in the Poolbeg Peninsula,” Labour Party Cllr Kevin Humphreys said.

The proposal for a thermal treatment plant was originally advanced by Dublin City Council in its 1998 Waste Management Plan.

Cllr Humphreys urged all the residents in Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount to contact Government TDs – including Dublin South East TD Justice Minister Michael McDowell – to voice their opposition to the incinerator.

“Dublin City Council is planning to build a 500,000 to 750,000 tonne incinerator on the Poolbeg Peninsula. This will lead to over a 1,000 extra heavy goods vehicles a week through our community, it will also destroy the amenities of the Poolbeg Peninsula and Sandymount Strand increase the dioxin in the air we breathe,” he said.

The incinerator is not scheduled to open until 2010 and the planning phase is expected to take until the end of 2006.