A SPOKESMAN for Minister for the Environment John Gormley said last night it was "difficult to understand the motive" of Dublin City Council in commissioning the ESRI report "apart from as an
attempt to undermine the national review of waste policy".
Noting a recent High Court judgment that was “highly critical” of the council’s implementation of waste policy, he said: “It is the Government that decides on waste policy, and it is not up to local authorities . . . to dictate to Government what national waste policy should be.”
The spokesman noted that the Fianna Fáil-Green Party programme for government "sets out a clear intention to review waste policy and in this context to place a cap on incineration capacity".
He said this had been signalled to Dublin city manager John Tierney in June 2007.
“The Minister has received a number of submissions on the waste review in recent weeks,” he said, adding that the ESRI report “is one further such input commissioned by an interest group” and would be considered as such “– even though it contained “a number of errors”.
For example, it assumed that waste generation would "increase at Celtic Tiger rates . . .but that recycling rates will stop increasing. It also assumes a status quo in terms of waste policy, charges or consumer and industry practice, which is clearly not the case in the real world."
The Irish Waste Management Association described the report as "fundamentally flawed", saying it "shows no understanding of the impact that the growth in recycling in the Dublin region has had – and will continue to have – on the amount of waste available for incineration".
The city manager along with senior officials of Covanta Energy, which is involved in developing the controversial waste incinerator at Poolbeg, is to appear before the Oireachtas Environment Committee this afternoon to face questions on the €350 million project.
