Controversial Poolbeg incinerator likely to be given go-ahead in coming weeks

The controversial incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin is now set to go ahead within weeks.

Management at Dublin City Council wrote to city councillors today strongly recommending that the project should proceed.

It is understood that it is likely the other three Dublin local authorities will also make a similar recommendation.

Councillors at the local authorities are due to be fully briefed in person on the issue in the coming days.

While many councillors are strongly opposed to the incinerator, they cannot veto the decision, as it is an executive decision for the heads of the four local authorities to make.

The leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan, was critical of the news and said it represented poor planning.

"We're going to be driving half the country's waste through the city centre, through the narrow streets … then drive out again with the ashes, which we'll dump somewhere else."

"On a fundamental planning basis … [it] doesn’t make sense."