Residents living near a proposed private landfill site in east Galway have called on the county council to reject the planning application after it was deemed inadequate for a third time.
The local authority has returned the application to Greenstar (formerly Celtic Waste) for the proposed landfill site at Killaghmore, near Kilconnell, after finding that it had failed to provide sufficient information in relation to scientific analysis, bird and bat habitats, and roads.
"We are calling on the council to reject this application outright, to say that it is not suitable, and perhaps it is time that this company withdrew their application," said Mr Tomas Finn of the Kilconnell, New Inn and Cappataggle Anti-Super Dump Group.
His group has joined with another protest campaign, the Newbridge Action Group, in condemning the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, for overruling a decision by the council not to allow any dump to be built within one mile of any home in the county.
Both groups are enraged that this is the second time in three years that a minister for the environment has overturned a democratic decision at local level in relation to landfill sites in Galway.
Mr Finn said he believed that lobbying by IBEC (the employers' organisation) had prompted Mr Cullen to overrule a decision taken by the council for the recently introduced County Development Plan.
Earlier this year, councillors had voted 21-1 in favour of putting a one-mile restriction on the location of landfill sites close to occupied dwellings.
"This was a democratically taken decision which has been overruled now," said Mr Finn. "Galway is a large county and it should be possible to locate a dump in an area where there are no residents.
"Three years ago, then minister Dempsey overruled the council after they had twice rejected the Connacht Waste Management Plan, empowering the county manager to adopt it. It seems that if they don't agree with local decisions, they just change legislation to take the power out of councillors' hands. I think it's extraordinary, a direct attack on local democracy."
The Newbridge Action Group pointed out that the one-mile limit was introduced by the council because of health and safety considerations.