Councillors in Kilkenny have pledged to fight plans to build an incinerator to dispose of most of the south-east's waste despite the county council's previous support for the initiative.
The campaign against the incinerator, a key part of the waste management strategy promoted by the South East Regional Authority (SERA), is gathering momentum, with groups in Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford actively opposing the development.
The extent of public concern about the issue was evident on Monday evening when 500 people turned up for an information meeting organised by the Waterford-Kilkenny Incinerator Study Group in Slieverue.
Kilkenny county councillors Dick Dowling (FG), Paul Cuddihy (FG), Bobby Aylward (FF) and John Phelan (FG) all addressed the meeting and expressed their opposition to the proposal. But they failed - given the negative reaction of many of those present - to explain adequately how the council first came to support it.
Mr Phelan who, like Mr Cuddihy, is newly elected, explained that he wasn't a member of the council when the decision was made. "I didn't vote for anything, This thing was adopted in February," he said. Five out of the six county councils in the region have approved the incinerator proposal, which forms part of the waste management strategy drawn up by consultants Fehily, Timoney & Co for SERA.
Wexford County Council has delayed a decision, pending the receipt of more information about the proposal. The position of Waterford County Council is unclear following a decision of councillors last week to remove the proposal from the county development plan.
Mr Micheal O Cadhla, a locally-based environmental activist, told the meeting that the last stage in the process, before the incinerator plan went ahead, had already been reached.
"We're only starting to discuss it now and it's almost too late. The consultation process finished months ago and a lot of people are only just discovering that there was a consultation process, that there was something to be consulted about," he said.
The group is unmoved by suggestions that an incinerator built today would be a state-of-the-art facility, unlike those operating in other countries where concerns have been raised about dioxin emissions. "They have never identified a safe level of dioxin for a person to take in," said Mr O Cadhla. "They just keep reducing the level at which they know it is dangerous to take in more."
He added that incinerators also emitted chemical compounds which scientists had yet to identify.
An exact location for the proposed incinerator has not been identified, but SERA's consultants have recommended that it be placed within an area which takes in part of south Kilkenny, east Waterford and west Wexford, known as the SKEWWW box. One commercial consortium has already expressed an interest in siting it at the Great Island power station near the Wexford village of Campile.