As of today, only two of the State's seven regional waste-management plans have fully accepted the thermal treatment option to deal with waste. They are Dublin and the region made up by Cos Limerick, Kerry and Clare.
Wicklow and Kildare have opted to remain outside regional plans with some expectation that they will be able to buy into facilities provided by the Dublin plan. Donegal County Council will participate in a cross-Border regional solution only on the basis that it will not involve incineration.
The current state of the regional waste management plan is:
Dublin: four local authorities - Dublin Corporation, Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown. Plan adopted by all four local authorities. The region produces 2.3 million tonnes of waste annually. Cost of plan: £600 million. Targets: recycling 60 per cent of total waste, including composting, biological treatment and construction/demolition waste.
The Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, is steering the recycling element of the plan, which involves a domestic charge through the city council.
Charges are critical to ensure ambitious 60 per cent recycling targets in the plan can be met. Homes are to get additional bins and separate collection services for dry recyclables. A protest group is campaigning against the charge. An anti-incinerator lobby is campaigning against the thermal treatment element, with an incinerator most likely to be based in Ringsend.
Midlands: five local authorities - Westmeath, Offaly, Laois, Tipperary NR and Longford. The region produces 152,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost: £225 million. Targets: recycling 46 per cent of total waste produced, thermal treatment 37 per cent and landfill 17 per cent. Adopted by Westmeath, Offaly, Tipperary NR. Laois initially rejected the plan but reversed its position in December. Longford rejected the plan in October 2000.
North-East: four local authorities - Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. The region produces 520,000 tonnes of waste annually, plus 3.5 million tonnes of agricultural waste. Cost: £258 million. Targets: recycling 43 per cent, thermal treatment 39 per cent, landfill 18 per cent. Plan adopted by Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. Louth rejected it last October.
Midwest: four local authorities - Limerick Corporation, Limerick, Clare and Kerry County Councils. Produces 225,000 tonnes annually. Cost: £290 million. Targets: recycling 41 per cent, thermal treatment 45 per cent, landfill 14 per cent. Plan adopted by all four authorities.
Connacht: six local authorities - Galway Corporation, Galway County Council, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim and Roscommon. The region produces 596,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost: £300 million plus. Targets: recycling 48 per cent, thermal treatment 33 per cent, landfill 19 per cent. Legal challenges to rejection in Galway. Roscommon rejected incineration and landfill. Sligo, Leitrim and Mayo have adopted the plan.
South-East: six local authorities - Waterford Corporation, Waterford County Council, Kilkenny, Carlow, Tipperary South and Wexford. The region produces 350,000 tonnes of waste annually. Cost unknown as yet. Targets: to reduce the amount of waste which must be managed by the local authorities by 25 per cent; the rest would be incinerated, leaving ash to be disposed of in landfills.
A local campaign of opposition has been gathering momentum. Wexford County Council rejected the incinerator option.
Cork: two local authorities - Cork County Council and Cork Corporation. The regional plan between Cork Corporation and County Council has been in place for five years. Targets: to reduce the quantity of waste going to landfill to 200,000 tonnes by 2020. The plan puts reduction, re-use and recycling before thermal treatment. But it envisages a new landfill being developed in the county to replace existing landfill which is scheduled to reach capacity in 2002.
Cork Corporation is to sort its waste, segregating recoverables and sending the residue to landfill in Co Cork. The plan says a final phase of thermal treatment for remaining waste that cannot be easily reprocessed or composted is not currently an economic option.
Several private companies have indicated they are investigating the possibility of building large thermal treatment plants, including Indaver Ireland, which has said it will soon seek planning permission for a facility capable of serving the northeast. It will be outside Drogheda, Co Louth.
The Green Party has accused the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, of favouring a "flawed" incinerator policy above a safe food policy. "The Minister for Agriculture, if he is serious about tackling BSE, must test every bovine animal. Slaughter without testing is in nobody's interests except that of incinerator companies," said the party spokesman on agriculture, Mr Trevor Sargent, yesterday. Research had shown the BSE prion could survive incineration, he warned.