Environmental groups have criticised the appointment of an operations manager of the waste-management firm Indaver Ireland to the position of director at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Ms Laura Burke was today appointed a director of the EPA having worked for waste-management firm Indaver, overseeing the planning, construction and operation of two controversial incinerators.
Indaver have proposed the development of a non-hazardous waste incinerator in Carranstown, Co Meath, and a hazardous and non-hazardous waste incinerator in Ringsakiddy, Co Cork. The EPA is still assessing license applications for the facilities.
Green Party TD Mr Dan Boyle today accused the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, of putting the interests of business ahead of matters of environmental protection.
Mr Boyle said the appointment of Ms Burke, "utterly compromises the position of the EPA as a body seen by the public as being independent and impartial.
"While current waste licence applications are still being considered by the EPA, involvement in their decision-making processes by people who have been attached to organisations which prepared such applications . . . undermines the credibility of the agency," he added.
A spokesperson for the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment called the appointment "inappropriate," adding that Ms Burke is too closely linked to the incineration industry to independently assess EPA license applications for the Cork and Meath facilities.
"Ms Bourke has spent the last three years extolling the virtues of incineration and the necessity of the Cork and Meath incinerators. How is she now going to turn around and put an independent face on with regard to incineration?"
The decision "does nothing for the transparency of the EPA and raises question marks of collusion between government, industry and the EPA at the expense of the health of the Irish People," the spokesperson said.
There EPA board comprises a director general and four directors.