Bord Peanála holds the future of these people in its hands

THERE is something fundamentally wrong that the communities in Ringaskiddy and those in the surrounding Cork harbour area should be subjected to a Bord Pleanála oral hearing in relation to the proposed Indaver Ireland hazardous waste incinerator.

If natural justice prevailed, or even local democracy reigned, that hearing would not be sitting. At least not in relation to the little village in County Cork.

In fact, it's incredible that Ringaskiddy was ever targeted for the controversial project in the first instance, for some very sound reasons.

It is irrelevant whether or not you consider Ireland should have such an incinerator. That is not the question here. What is relevant is that Ringaskiddy is the very last place that should have crossed anybody's mind as a site to locate such a facility.

It should never have been in the frame, for the simple reason that as a community the people there have contributed to the economic development of this country not just to the local economy to an extent which is way beyond what any other city, town or village has ever been asked to bear.

Nowadays, it would be impossible for the casual visitor there to realise that a long time ago Ringaskiddy was a quiet fishing village, a resort with beaches, where it was safe for families and children to enjoy the natural beauty of Cork harbour. However, over the years it has become the pharmaceutical and chemical capital of Ireland, so that now the idyllic image of the village is but a memory.

That dim memory should not manifest itself into a modern nightmare for the people of the locality simply because they did not just tolerate the arrival of what many others would consider a major risk in their midst at the beginning, they accommodated it.

Now, they and their neighbours in the communities clustered around one of the most remarkably beautiful harbours in the world are expected to accept the imposition of a hazardous waste incinerator and all the attendant worries that it brings.

But this time they have said no, and it's not just a case of "not in my back yard". Quite simply, their back yard is full.

It's full of pharmaceutical and chemical plants which have, over the last 30 years, transformed their once sleepy village into a multinational industrial estate.

They also have a scrap steel processing plant, a fertiliser plant, and an animal feed storage facility to contend with.

Apart from the traffic from all of those, they also have traffic from two ferries which operate for most of the year.

So, it is no wonder that their back yard is full. And it is no wonder that the people in the harbour area 25,000 of them have shouted halt. That shout was heard by their democratically-elected representatives on Cork County Council who, in the majority, sided with the people and voted against the incinerator.

And why would they not, seeing as how the people did not want it and the fact that it was never included in the county development plan. They voted against a material contravention motion put to them by the county manager to allow the incinerator go ahead, and having consigned that to the waste bin, it should have followed that local democracy won out.

But for 25,000 people at least in the Cork harbour area, local democracy does not work like that. In fact, it does not work at all. The company, as it was entitled to do under our current system, appealed to An Bord Pleanála, and so last week, this week and possibly next week, the whole issue is the subject of an oral hearing in Neptune Stadium, before a

final decision will be made.

Though it was inherently wrong that the wishes of the people, and a decision of their democratically elected representatives, were allowed to be trampled on by the system, worse was to follow.

Any reasonable person might believe that a community which objects to the threatened imposition on them of a hazardous waste incinerator should have the right to question from a health aspect what will be spewed on them from such a facility. You would be wrong.

Because of the current waste management legislation in place in this country, and consequently outside the remit of the oral hearing, no reference may be made as to what possibly might be emitted from the stack of such an incinerator on a daily basis and its impact on the health of the community.

However, what might happen in the event of an incident, such as an accident, can be considered.

NOT only have the people of Ringaskiddy and their neighbouring communities had their democratic rights ignored, they are precluded from voicing their worries on health grounds as to what might be contaminating their air every day of the week for the foreseeable future. And they are not just worried.

They are scared.

They are scared about their health, their children's health, the damage that could be caused to the environment from contamination, and the threat to their lives from massively increased traffic.

Having attended the oral hearing for a few days this week, it was patently obvious to me that nothing will allay those fears.

All the assurances they have been given from Indaver have not and never will allay those fears. The company has gone to great pains to reassure the people that the incinerator would pose no threat to the community.

I do not know whether it would or not, but why should the interests of another multinational company take precedence over the possible risk to the health of so many thousands of people? The fears of the people were expressed by several who made submissions to the oral hearing, like Ian Breen, a father of six, who has lived in Ringaskiddy for 14 years.

He said he did not know what categorises a major disaster, but because of the traffic going through the village at the moment, Ringaskiddy lives with the possibility every day and that's without traffic from the proposed incinerator.

Given that the village is a cul-de-sac, one can readily see why his fears, and those of his neighbours, are so intense, living as they would in the shadow of the proposed incinerator.

But if it does happen, Ian Breen and his family will not be living there.

"If Indaver comes to Ringaskiddy, myself, my wife and my family will probably be the first casualty of the community because it would be too close to live near the incinerator. We will move elsewhere," he declared. He also mentioned the general perception of the people that no matter what they did, Indaver was going to get planning permission because Bord Pleanála was merely paying lip service to the people.

Mr Breen, though, said he did not accept that, because he believed that the board had the integrity to refuse the permission.

Now, these people's democratic rights are guarded only by the integrity of that body and, hopefully, Mr Breen's confidence in it will be vindicated. Otherwise, it will be a long road to Brussels.