ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley was under pressure from Opposition TDs last night over the Green Party's u-turn on incineration since it went into Government.
Proposing a Fine Gael Dail motion against the building of an incinerator at Poolbeg, Dublin, Fergus O'Dowd said Mr Gormley was before them "in his most brazen act of duplicity" in opposing the motion which stated there was no electoral mandate for an incinerator. Mr O'Dowd said only last year Mr Gormley had presented in the Dail a "well-thought out, well presented Green Party motion that attacked incineration".
"Your cop-out is spectacular and has sold your voters and all those in and near Poolbeg, down the river," Mr O'Dowd said to the minister. Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton said the minister's silence on the issue was "deafening".
She said he had shied away from the issue when he negotiated the Programme for Government and since then he had sheepishly avoided it.
Mr Gormley pointed out that he lives in Ringsend with his family and his position as a public representative for Dublin South East and as a resident in regard to the project was "well known, entirely consistent and second to none".
However, he said he was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and in that capacity he had to act under and be respectful of, restrictions placed on him by primary legislation, enacted by the Oireachtas. There was very clear limitation of the ministers' power under the planning and development act, he said. In light of that, it would not be appropriate for the minister to comment or interfere with the case regarding the incinerator which is before An Bord Pleanala and the Opposition knew that, Mr Gormley said.
He said the Green Party had opposed incinerators. "Unlike other parties his words have been matched by actions," said Green Junior Minister Trevor Sargent, reminding the House that Mr Gormley had been taken to court for his opposition to incineration.
Geraldine Collins
Irish Independent
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