Hundreds of people protested against a proposed incinerator at the Poolbeg peninsula in Ringsend on Saturday, as council officials met the proposed operators of the plant to discuss an environmental impact statement.
At a protest attended by 300 people, the Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI) group called on politicians to support an imminent Dáil motion which proposes that plans for a "waste-to-energy plant" in Ringsend be excluded from the Government's waste management plan.
The proposed incinerator is central to Dublin City Council's waste-management plans and its 10-15 year plan for the €1.5 billion development of the Poolbeg peninsula, which includes extending the Ringsend sewage plant and building more than 2,500 homes.
Elsam, a Danish company, has been contracted to design, build and operate the incinerator.
A spokeswoman for CRAI, Frances Corr, said people were concerned that an incinerator could cause health problems and unspecified illnesses.
After almost eight years of opposition to the incinerator, Ms Corr added, residents were still adamant that the Poolbeg infrastructure remained incapable of handling another 400 extra trucks each day.
Without a Dublin eastern bypass tunnel, trucks using the incinerator would be forced to use already congested narrow roads, according to Fianna Fáil senator Mary White. She has previously criticised her party's decision to locate an incinerator at Poolbeg.
"I have spoken with the Taoiseach and the Minister for the Environment Dick Roche and I have told them that this is the most bizarre planning I have ever come across," Ms White said. "The eastern bypass tunnel is not budgeted for in the Government's 10-year road strategy announced last year."
With an additional 2,500 new residential units planned under the Poolbeg development plan, that traffic volumes would be "completely overwhelming".
Local Progressive Democrats representative Michael McDowell, who did not attend Saturday's protest, was challenged to "reveal his hand" on the proposed incinerator by local Labour TD, Ruairí Quinn.
Mr Quinn has tabled a Dáil motion opposing the siting of the incinerator on the peninsula, which will be debated in the coming months. "Michael McDowell and his Fianna Fáil partners promised at the last election that no incinerator would be built in Ringsend," he said.
"The proposed incinerator contravenes the Dublin City Development Plan, and yet Michael McDowell supported it in Cabinet."
Dublin City Council has previously assured the local community that building the plant would be accompanied by investment in the community.