The proposed site for an incinerator at Poolbeg

A DELEGATION from the European Commission is to travel to Dublin next month to inspect the proposed site for an incinerator at Poolbeg.
In addition, Dublin City Council have been ordered by An Bord Pleanála to publish key information which was not given by the council at the time of the original advertisement.
According to Damien Cassidy of the Ringsend Environment Group, representatives of the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament are to examine the chosen site and ask why it was chosen when it is so near to people’s houses.
They will also look for details of the consultation process which the council engaged in.
News of the delegation’s visit comes as the council prepares to re-advertise key details of the proposal which Dublin City Council has not made available before.
Further information was submitted to the council in November 2006 and also earlier this month.
On February 15, An Bord Pleanála wrote to the council telling the local authority it must republish adverts in the national media outlining that it has submitted more information on the project.
Among the areas that information covers is the likely effects on the environment of the proposed development and the ‘Dublin Waste to Energy Project Major Accident Hazard Assessment’ which was revised as late as this month.
The board also told the local authority all that information must be made available to the public and that they must be given the opportunity to make submissions.
Mr Cassidy said: “There was a public consultation process, but there was no consultation.
“Staff from the city council and foreign engineers brought by them gave their version of how it would be great.
“We asked for the other side of the story to be given. That was never done.”
Dublin City Council issued a statement on Wednesday saying the Poolbeg project was still on track despite claims from by Tánaiste Michael McDowell that it was to be abandoned.
It said last night it would not issue any further comment.
During a special Dáil discussion on the proposed incinerator in Poolbeg last night, Áine Kerr writes that Labour’s Ruairi Quinn said it would be the “height of irresponsibility” if the Environment Minister Dick Roche allowed the project to proceed when it was “never going to fly”.
Mr Quinn queried if there had been a breach in confidentiality when the Justice Minister announced that plans for the incinerator had collapsed.
Stephen Rogers
© Irish Examiner