Poolbeg incinerator owners fined for breaking environmental licence in first week

The operator of the Poolbeg incinerator has been fined €1,000 and ordered to pay €14,000 in costs after a “glitch” led to breaking its environmental protection licence during its first week. The power plant at Pigeon House Road, Poolbeg, Dublin 4, which began operations in June last year, aims to convert waste that cannot be reused or recycled into clean energy to produce 60 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 80,000 homes. It is run by The Dublin Waste to Energy project – a public-private partnership between Dublin City Council and recycling and energy company Covanta. Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd faced six counts of breaking conditions of a licence for the facility granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Read the full article @ The Irish Examiner

Covanta seeks €2.2bn to start incinerator

US energy giant Covanta has said it plans to raise €2.2 billion from which it hopes to begin construction of the controversial Poolbeg incinerator as early as next year.

The move comes despite the company not having finalised an agreementwithDublin City Council over the supply ofmunicipal waste to burn at the 600,000-tonne facility, The Sunday Business Post understands. A spokesman for the New Jersey-based company told an industry conference in Birmingham last month that the firm expected to begin construction on the plant in Ringsend by early 2012.

The new start date would be considerably sooner than industry experts had expected. ‘‘We are taking forward six EfW(energy fromwaste) plant projects in the UK and one in Ireland for which we need a combined total of »2bn in investment,€ a spokesperson said. ‘‘The first project is the Poolbeg Peninsula, Dublin EfW plant that wil l treat 600,000 tonnes of waste per annum.We aim to secure financing by the end of this year to start construction by early 2012.€

Covanta said it had advisers in place for the Dublin project. From the €2.2 billion raised, Covanta anticipated that the EfWplants will cost between €220mand €540m each. It is likely the announcement has come as a surprise to the firm’s joint partner in the project, Dublin City Council. The local authority told this newspaper that it was ‘‘exhorting Covanta continuously to proceed with construction of the waste-to-energy project as quickly as possible’’.

‘‘The 2013 and 2016 EU diversion of waste from landfill targets are rapidly approaching, which makes the Poolbeg facilitymore urgent than ever,€ a spokesperson for the council said.

Sunday Business Post

www.buckplanning.ie

Authorities seek control of all Dublin area waste

DUBLIN’S POOLBEG incinerator will not be viable unless the Dublin local authorities own and control all the waste in the region, the city council has told Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan.

The council says it wants to stop collecting household bins, but it will need to have legal ownership of the waste collected by private operators and the right to determine the facility at which the waste will be disposed.

The council has for several years maintained the incinerator is viable, and that it has sufficient waste under its control to satisfy its contract with the plant developers – despite claims to the contrary by former minister for the environment John Gormley and private waste companies.

The council is now the only local authority in the Dublin region still collecting household bins. It said it believes it should exit the market, but will need to have control of the waste collected by private operators across the Dublin region to make the incinerator “bankable”.

The council’s position is outlined in a submission – made on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities – on Mr Hogan’s proposed restructuring of household waste markets.

The Government wants to introduce competitive tendering for local household waste collection services, which would involve private companies bidding for the franchise from local authorities to collect waste.

In the submission, seen by The Irish Times, the council supports the move to tender bin collections to private operators. Withdrawal from the market would allow the local authority to focus on its role as a regulator of waste collection, it said.

This is the first time the council has stated it should stop collecting bins. It emerged last month the council had entered into talks with Siptu, the union representing bin men, about the future of the service, which has been provided by the local authority for 150 years. The council refused to comment on the matter.

The submission also states any contracting out of the service “must allow for direction” to a specific facility.

It says the local authorities have been attempting to build the Poolbeg waste-to-energy plant for 10 years, in line with their obligations under statutory waste management plans.

“The regional objective to develop such a facility has been in place since the late 1990s, yet the facility remains unbuilt,” it said.

The difficulties in trying to develop the facility have hinged on key issues of the ownership of household waste, the ability to direct waste and project finance, the submission said.

“The issues are inter-related, and addressing one in isolation will not ensure that the facility is built and plan objectives are met. In trying to develop a regional facility, the Dublin local authorities realise that to make such a project bankable and viable the ability to direct waste must be available.”

Currently, the legal position is that whoever holds waste owns it, so it is owned by the householder until it is picked up by waste collectors, when ownership transfers.

The council said if it was to have firm legal grounds to tender out a waste service, and to direct private firms to bring the waste to a particular location, it would have to have legal ownership of the waste.

“Failure to vest ownership in local authorities may lead to legal concerns relating to the local authorities’ legal ability to introduce franchise bidding for something they do not own,” it said.

The council said it realised the change to franchising would mean some existing private operators would lose their markets, but it said there was not a strong case for compensation for that loss.

The council had tried in 2007 to introduce a similar system whereby it would choose waste providers by competitive tender, and direct the end destination of waste. A High Court action by waste firms Panda and Greenstar stopped it gaining this control.

Mr Gormley had planned to introduce a competitive tendering system, but without giving the local authorities the right to decide at what facility waste would be processed. However, the waste Bill was not passed into law before the last government fell.

Burning Issue Timeline To Incinerator

DECEMBER 1998

Dublin City Council adopts, by 18 votes to 13, a Regional Waste Management Plan that includes a provision for a 750,000 tonne capacity incinerator. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors vote in favour, Labour is split on the issue, while Greens and Independents oppose the plan.

DECEMBER 1999

Poolbeg peninsula is identified by consultants MC O’Sullivan and Danish thermal treatment experts COWI as the preferred site for the incinerator.

SEPTEMBER 2004

City councillors vote to block plans for the incinerator by a majority of 32 to five. Council management says the vote is not in order because it conflicts with the previously approved waste plan.

June 2005

The council says the incinerator will be open by late 2010.

July 2005

Elsam Ireland, a subsidiary of a Danish power firm, is selected to design, build and operate the plant under public private partnership with the council.

JUNE 2006

The council applies to An Bord Pleanála for permission for a 600,000 tonne capacity incinerator.

OCTOBER 2006

On the closing date for submissions to An Bord Pleanála more than 2,000 objections are received including ones from then tánaiste Michael McDowell, Labour TD Ruairí Quinn, and Green Party chairman John Gormley.

FEBRUARY 2007

Elsam pulls out of the project after being taken over by another Danish firm, Dong Energy, which queries its viability and says it “is not able to meet the terms of the PPP”. Dong seeks to introduce Covanta, a US waste management company, as a partner.

JUNE 2007

John Gormley becomes minister for the environment and immediately begins reviewing what options are open to him to halt the project – although he is debarred from interfering with the planning process.

SEPTEMBER 2007

Following the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing and in advance of its decision on the planning application, the council signs a contract with Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd, a consortium formed by Dong and Covanta, for the as yet unapproved Poolbeg project.

SEPTEMBER 2007

The then assistant city manager with responsibility for waste Matt Twomey brings forward proposals to change the Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan to allow it to choose private bin collectors by competitive tender.

NOVEMBER 2007

The council secures permission for the plant from An Bord Pleanála. Mr Gormley said he is “very disappointed” by the decision and intends to change waste policy.

DECEMBER 2008

The Environmental Protection Agency grants a waste licence for the plant.

DECEMBER 2009

Panda wins a High Court case against the council’s attempts to change waste collection service. Justice Liam McKechnie found the council abused its dominant position in the capital’s waste market.

DECEMBER 2009

Covanta begins construction of the facility.

MARCH 2010

Gormley proposes waste-disposal levies of up to €120 a tonne for incineration and landfill.

MAY 2010

Work is suspended due to the lack of a foreshore licence, responsibility for which had been transferred to the Department of the Environment.

OCTOBER 2010

The council secures a compulsory purchase order, which made the foreshore licence unnecessary.

NOVEMBER 2010

Bord na Móna and Oxigen are awarded contracts to dispose of Dublin’s waste in landfill sites following the closure of the last Dublin landfill.

JULY 2011

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan drops Mr Gormley’s proposed levy on incineration. Covanta declares that the political situation here had “changed totally” and it could now finalise a financial package for the Poolbeg project, which could cost €400 million.

NOVEMBER 2011

Review date of the contract between the city council and Covanta to confirm whether the incinerator will proceed.

DECEMBER 2014

Poolbeg plant due to open.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Council votes against Poolbeg site loans

AN ATTEMPT by Dublin City Council to borrow more than € 50 million to complete the purchase of the site of the controversial Poolbeg incinerator has been blocked by councillors.

City manager John Tierney last night sought approval to borrow €50.3 million for site costs and an additional €10.8 million to develop a district heating system using power from the incinerator. Councillors voted by 26 votes to 12 not to allow the council management to seek a loan for the project.

The council had previously estimated the cost of buying the site for the plant at €120 million. The contract with the US developers of the incinerator, Covanta, is under review until next November, but the council has said it is confident the project will be back up and running by the end of this year.

Deputy Lord Mayor Maria Parodi (Lab) said she was "completely against" the approval of any further borrowing for the incinerator and that the request from the council management was premature, when the decision date on the future of the incinerator had been extended to November.

"I am shocked and appalled we are being asked to approve borrowing when we have in front of us such an undetailed report," she added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Jim O'Callaghan said great confusion had been caused in relation to the funding for the plant.

Mr Tierney said that the €50.3 million had already been committed but would be "converted into borrowing" instead of being taken from current funds to prevent the council going into overdraft. The loan would only be drawn down as funds were needed.
The council and the other Dublin local authorities are responsible for providing Covanta with a site for the facility. A report commissioned by former minister for the environment John Gormley from John Hennessy SC found the council would face "very substantial" penalties if it failed to provide Covanta with sufficient municipal waste to fuel it over 25 years.


The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Minister drops plans for levy on incineration

Move welcomed by firm behind Poolbeg project.

A LEVY on incineration proposed by former minister for the environment John Gormley has been scrapped.

The move by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan reverses the previous government's opposition to incineration and will be seen as a major boost for the economic viability of Dublin's proposed Poolbeg incinerator.

The move has already been welcomed by Covanta, the company behind the Poolbeg facility.

In a statement last night Covanta said Mr Hogan's action was "consistent with policies that have been adopted by numerous EU countries that have achieved significant success in diverting waste from landfill".

Dublin City Council, which was contracted to supply waste to the incinerator, said it was "pleased" with Mr Hogan's decision.

The council said the decision "makes sense, will enable maximum resource efficiency from waste management", and is in line with Irish and EU policy.
The council, which operates the region's waste management policy on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, currently transports waste to landfill sites outside the region.

PJ Rudden who devised most of the State's regional waste management plans, including Dublin's, said the move indicated "Ireland is open for business".

He said the removal of plans for the levy should be seen "as part of Ireland's economic revival".

"When the Poolbeg incinerator opens Dublin will not send one tonne of waste to landfill," he said.

The move was, however, criticised by Green Party leader Eamon Ryan who said it was a "remarkable reversal" of policy and one which "gives the green light to a project that could cost the Irish people dearly".

"It will scupper the development of recycling," he said.

The Irish Waste Management Association, which has been critical of incineration, said the move could see the State's environment fund run out.

Environmental levies such as the plastic bag tax and landfill levies are directed to the environment fund to be used on environmental projects, including the cleaning up of illegal dumps.

But Mr Hogan said: "Ireland's immediate challenge is to move away from its overdependence on landfill.

"Almost two-thirds of waste still goes to landfill and Ireland must comply with strict limits under the landfill directive."

He said the State needed an alternative to landfill and incineration was the only alternative.

A spokeswoman for Mr Hogan added that the move was also in line with a review by the National Competitive Council which said a levy was inappropriate until the industry was established here.

Mr Hogan has not ruled out an incineration levy at a later date.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Hogan will not intervene on Poolbeg

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan will not be intervening to prevent the Poolbeg incinerator going ahead, even though Dublin City Council would face “very substantial” penalties if it failed to provide sufficient municipal waste to fuel it over 25 years.

The confirmation of the council’s exposure to penalties came in a report prepared by John Hennessy SC for Mr Hogan’s predecessor, former Green Party leader John Gormley, which the Minister has now released in a heavily redacted form.

Although he said he was publishing it “in the interests of openness and transparency”, all references to the scale of the financial penalties and other crucial aspects of the contract between the council and its American partners, Covanta, have been deleted.

Mr Hogan said that he “had to redact commercially sensitive aspects, thereby respecting the confidential nature of certain information which was provided to Mr Hennessy to assist him in compiling his report” - including information provided by Covanta itself.

Mr Hennessy had been appointed by the former Minister as an “authorised person” under section 224 of the 2001 Local Government Act 2001, to examine potential financial risks associated with the project within a given set of scenarios.

The report concluded that termination or variation of the Poolbeg contract would “give rise to significant financial cost” for the city council and that trends in waste management and recycling was also likely to make it “very expensive” for the council.

“The scenarios envisaged under the terms of reference for this report tend to suggest that DCC may well be paying, for a considerable period of time, for the processing of significantly more waste than it is able to deliver to the facility”, Mr Hennessy wrote.

Commenting on his 92-page report, Mr Hogan said the senior counsel who compiled it was “required to work within predetermined parameters and scenarios set in the terms of reference given to him” by the former minister, who opposed Poolbeg.

“Having consulted with my Government colleagues, I have concluded that there is no national waste policy justification for the Government to intervene in this matter”, the Minister said. One of them is Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, who represents Dublin South East.

“The Dublin Regional Waste Management Plan makes provision for the project and decisions in relation to it are a matter for the two parties to the contract, Dublin City Council and Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd” - the company which Covanta now controls.

The Minister said his focus “is firmly fixed on completing, by the end of the year, the review of national waste policy which he has initiated”. This review is widely expected to endorse “waste-to-energy” plants, such as the one planned for Poolbeg.

“Responsibility for waste management plans and their implementation is, and will remain, a matter primarily for local authorities, guided by the internationally recognised waste hierarchy”, Mr Hogan said, adding that this was “transposed into Irish law earlier this year”.

Dublin City Council said the “restricted terms of reference” of the Hennessy report “did not take into account the wider context which is relevant to understanding the Project and why it is necessary”, such as the requirements of EU waste management directives.

It pointed out that the four Dublin local authorities currently “have to issue a new contract every six months and waste facilities all around the country compete to take Dublin’s waste as there is no more landfill space available in the Dublin region”.

The Irish Waste Management Association has said the so-called ‘put or pay’ contract between Dublin City Council and Covanta to build the 600,000 tonne incinerator posed “a massive and unacceptable ongoing debt risk to taxpayers”.

Director of the association Brendan Keanve said it didn’t matter if waste levels dropped to zero.

“Covanta will continue to make a handsome profit since all taxpayers and ratepayers have signed a blank cheque to underwrite the facility.”

Last month, private waste companies said they would create 235 full-time jobs if the capacity of the planned Poolbeg incinerator was halved.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Call to scrap Poolbeg plant

Waste companies will create more than 750 jobs if the Poolbeg incinerator project is scrapped by the next government, the Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) has said.

An investment of €173 million would be made in the creation of 210 long-term jobs and 550 construction jobs before the incinerator was due to operate in 2014, the IWMA said - but only if the plant did not go ahead.

Not only would association members not create jobs if the plant was constructed, but up to 1,000 existing jobs in the waste industry would be lost because waste would be diverted to Poolbeg.

“This facility will be so dominant in the market that it will kill competition in the sector and investment in waste alternatives,” association spokesman Brendan Keane said.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Council says Poolbeg needed due to increasing waste

DUBLIN CITY Council has predicted that the volume of municipal waste in the capital would increase by one-third to reach 4 million tonnes annually by 2025 “to be trucked to landfills around the country” in the absence of an incinerator at Poolbeg.

Responding yesterday to claims by the Green Party and the Irish Waste Management Association that the planned incinerator was too big at 600,000 tonnes per annum, it said there was “no space in Dublin’s landfills” for the city’s waste “until Poolbeg opens”.

The council noted that the 2009 national waste report, published by the Environmental Protection Agency, said Ireland’s waste infrastructure, including waste-to-energy plants such as Poolbeg, “remains underdeveloped”.

It also noted the agency’s conclusion that it would be “a challenge” to meet waste diversion and recovery targets under EU directives “if municipal waste generation increases with economic recovery and the necessary waste infrastructure is not in place”.

A spokesman for Covanta, the council’s US partners in the Poolbeg project, said the 8 per cent fall in Dublin’s municipal waste in 2009, as reported by the agency “is exactly what was predicted by Covanta last year [and] comes as no surprise”.

He said Covanta’s business case with the Dublin authorities “is based on a reduction in the amount of waste being produced by individual households and an increase in the amount of recycling.” But the waste management association, which represents most private sector waste companies, insisted that the agency’s report “confirms that the proposed Poolbeg incinerator is seriously oversized relative to the Dublin region waste market”.

Spokesman Brendan Keane said the latest data highlighted “significant errors” made by the ESRI in its waste reports for Dublin City Council by predicting waste growth for 2008 and 2009 when, “in reality, waste levels plummeted by more than 13 per cent”.

This meant the local authorities “do not have enough waste for a 600,000-tonne incinerator at Poolbeg” and that “the writing is on the wall” for the project, which could expose taxpayers to up to €350 million in penalty payments.

“Waste levels are falling, recovery rates are rising and local authorities are exiting the waste market. Incineration is part of the solution to Ireland’s management of waste, but the Poolbeg project should be resized to approximately 300,000 tonnes per annum,” Mr Keane said.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Council says incinerator penalty costs 'will not arise'

AN ESTIMATE that taxpayers could be exposed to penalties as high as €350 million over 25 years for the proposed Poolbeg incinerator has been described as “hypothetical” by Dublin City Council.

“The four Dublin local authorities are satisfied that, even after maximum recycling, there will be sufficient waste for the Poolbeg incinerator and therefore the scenario envisaged [in a report by John Hennessy SC] will not arise,” it said.

But the Irish Waste Management Association, which opposes Poolbeg, said the report commissioned by former minister for the environment John Gormley “highlights the huge financial risk that this project poses to taxpayers”.

Association spokesman Brendan Keane said the potential waste of money “now mirrors the types of losses more commonly associated with Nama” and the full report should be made public.

Minister for the Environment Éamon Ó Cuív said he had sought advice from Attorney General Paul Gallagher on a number of legal issues and would be working with Cabinet colleagues to conclude this process.

“I am anxious to ensure that the matter of publication and related issues . . . are fully considered,” the Minister added.

Dublin City Council said there was nothing surprising about extracts from the report published yesterday because of the way in which Mr Hennessy’s terms of reference were drafted when Mr Gormley was minister.

It said the controversial “put or pay” clause in its contract with US waste management company Covanta would give the four Dublin local authorities “priority access to 320,000 tonnes of treatment capacity at the Poolbeg plant” over its 25-year term. The council said Covanta also had the option to source waste from the market and was in negotiations with waste collectors – although the company itself had no comment to make. Dublin’s waste is now being landfilled in counties Kildare and Cavan.

In 2008, even with a recycling rate of 40 per cent, more than 735,000 tonnes of waste from Dublin was landfilled. While the volume of waste was decreasing as a result of the recession, it “will increase in line with economic recovery”.

The council claimed the Hennessy report’s terms of reference did not take into account “the millions of euro that will accrue to the Dublin local authorities annually from the electricity and district heating”. The plant would generate sufficient electricity for 50,000 homes and district heating for a further 60,000 homes annually from the non-recyclable waste that would be treated there. “This is valued at some €10 million annually, at today’s prices.”

Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan TD has said his party ‘‘would not rely in any way’’ on the Hennessy report.

Instead, it would commission another senior counsel to examine what exposure would arise for taxpayers if the project was cancelled.

Mr Hogan called on Mr Gormley to retract an “outrageous slur” on his political integrity by suggesting on Newstalk radio that an official complaint he had made about the former minister’s actions had been done in conjunction with Covanta’s lawyers.

Ruairí Quinn, Labour TD for Dublin South East, is on record as describing the Poolbeg incinerator as a “foolish proposal”. He was joined by Labour councillors in objecting to the plan when it came before An Bord Pleanála in 2006. The board approved it, however.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Public may face €350m bill over incinerator

TAXPAYERS COULD be exposed to paying financial penalties ranging from €187 million to €350 million over 25 years for the Poolbeg incinerator planned by Dublin City Council, according to an official report.

The report, compiled by John Hennessy SC for former minister for the environment John Gormley, said the “put-or-pay” clause in the council’s contract with American waste management company Covanta could cost as much as €14 million per annum, on average.

This “worst case scenario” would arise if waste volumes reduced by 1 per cent per annum, recycling rates increased at 3 per cent per annum (to a level of 60 per cent) and the market shares of the Dublin local authorities reduced by 3 per cent per annum.

The findings of Mr Hennessy’s review of the council’s contract with Covanta, carried out under section 224 of the 2001 Local Government Act, were revealed in a letter from Mr Gormley last Friday to Éamon Ó Cuív, his successor in the Custom House.

The Green Party leader and TD for Dublin South East expresses his concern that the promoters of the project “may again use the election period to create ‘facts on the ground’ which any new Government will have to deal with” – as they had done in 2007.

During the last general election, Mr Gormley says that “the promoters of the incinerator took advantage of the election campaign to resurrect the project, which was at that time moribund following the withdrawal of the original preferred bidder, [Danish firm] Elsam.

“While political attention was focused on the general election, the project board met to agree the involvement of an entirely new bidder, Covanta. This decision was taken days before polling in the 2007 election, and did not come to light until the election was over.” If it now “went past the point where termination or variation of the agreement may be achieved at a relatively low cost, the new Government may find it has no option, in financial terms, but to alter waste policy in such a way as to ensure the viability of this project.

“Having commissioned the Hennessy report and having been aware of its contents for some months, I cannot in good conscience allow debate about this issue to continue during the election campaign without the key facts above being known to the public.” Mr Gormley’s letter says he believes “it is clearly in the public interest that the Hennessy report be published in full without any further delay” and it calls on the new Minister to “make arrangements for its publication within seven days of the date of this letter”.

The report was submitted last September and copies were sent to the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Attorney General, with whom Mr Gormley had correspondence on the issue of publication. But he received no formal reply from the Taoiseach or Minister for Finance.

Mr Hennessy’s analysis “makes it clear that, for the Dublin local authorities to avoid financial penalties under their contract with Covanta . . . waste volumes would have to increase again at Celtic Tiger rates and sustain such rates of increase for the next 25 years.

“The scale of the potential losses would be outside the ability of Dublin City Council to meet and therefore constitute a significant risk to the exchequer”, because the council “is likely to have considerable difficulty” in meeting its “put-or-pay” commitment to Covanta.

According to the letter, Mr Hennessy says the council would “struggle to deliver” 320,000 tonnes of waste to the incinerator from the Dublin market in any year unless the volumes of waste generated increased significantly.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Watchdog probes Gormley's refusal to back Poolbeg incinerator plan

Environment Minister John Gormley is being investigated by the Dail ethics watchdog over his opposition to a €350m incinerator in his constituency, the Irish Independent has learnt.

The Green Party leader tried to reject the probe by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO), claiming the allegations against him are politically motivated.

However, SIPO pushed ahead with a formal investigation on November 18 last year and appointed an inquiry officer to investigate the matter, just days before Mr Gormley sounded the death knell for the Government by calling for a general election.

SIPO is investigating Mr Gormley's two-year refusal to grant a foreshore licence to Covanta, the US company behind the Poolbeg development.

The probe was sparked by complaints that Mr Gormley was allowing personal and political concerns to expose the taxpayer to possible EU landfill fines and legal action from the company.

Mr Gormley dismissed complaints made by Fine Gael frontbencher Phil Hogan that he had broken the code of conduct for office holders as "political and vexatious". He told SIPO he had no case to answer.

"Essentially, what he was saying is that this is an attempt by Fine Gael to score political points and SIPO has no business getting involved," a source told the Irish Independent.

Geraldine Tallon, secretary general of the Department, also told SIPO she sought legal advice and was told any inquiry should be done in a formal manner.

The revelation comes as Mr Gormley faces renewed pressure to allow the incinerator to go ahead.

Covanta Europe president Scott Whitney recently hit out at a bill being rushed through by Mr Gormley in the final days of the Dail that will impose punitive levies on waste incineration of up to €120 a tonne.

"This measure will have very damaging consequences for the economy," Mr Whitney said in a statement. "Mr Gormley's behaviour has been prejudicial to the project and he has violated his duty as minister."

Mr Gormley has refused to grant the licence since becoming Environment Minister in May 2008, despite Dublin planners giving the incinerator the green light in December 2007.

Supporters of the project claimed Mr Gormley's opposition has thrown up to 600 new jobs into jeopardy.

Last July, US ambassador Dan Rooney lobbied Taoiseach Brian Cowen on behalf of Covanta to push the project through.

A spokesman for Mr Gormley refused to comment on the SIPO investigation. However, in a statement, he insisted the minister had upheld the highest ethical standards as a government minister and a public representative and that "any examination will bear this out".

Mr Gormley has insisted the project would cost the taxpayer dearly because it would be impossible to supply the plant with the 320,000 tonnes a year required under a 'put-or-pay' clause in the contract, exposing the taxpayer to fines.

However, recent waste projection reports revealed the incinerator was urgently needed. One such report pointed out that household waste will increase to 605,519 tonnes in 2020 and commercial waste to 981,605 tonnes.

The Irish Independent

www.buckplanning.ie

New levies may scupper plans to restart Poolbeg incinerator work

CONSTRUCTION OF the Poolbeg incinerator is set to restart by the end of April, Dublin city manager John Tierney has said. It is almost one year since work on the facility was stopped.

However, legislation setting levies on incineration, which could threaten the viability of the plant, is planned for publication before the Dáil returns, according to sources in the Department of the Environment.

The council will begin working with Covanta, the developers of the plant, in the coming weeks towards restarting the project, Mr Tierney said, following the removal of the last legal barrier to its development just days before Christmas.

The final date for objectors to the incinerator to seek a judicial review of An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant permission to Dublin City Council to compulsorily purchase land required for the facility expired on December 22nd. No application for a review was lodged.

Although the council has had planning permission for the incinerator for three years, it had to apply to An Bord Pleanála last August for permission to compulsorily acquire land it needed for a water-cooling facility for the plant.

The council had not included this element of the project in its original application as it had expected to receive a foreshore licence from the Department of Agriculture for the water-cooling facility. However, responsibility for foreshore licences was transferred to the Department of the Environment last January and the application has yet to be processed.

“We’re going to be working with Covanta early in the new year in order to get the project back up and going,” Mr Tierney said. “From my point of view, I would be hopeful that it would commence before the end of April.”

Covanta is no longer under a legal obligation to build the plant because the foreshore licence was not granted by last September, as set out in the terms of the contract with the council. However, Mr Tierney said he believed Covanta was committed to the project. “We can’t force Covanta to start, but they have confirmed as recently as last month that they are committed and want to build the Poolbeg project.”

Mr Tierney said this commitment came with the proviso that new waste levies were not introduced which would make the plant unviable.

It is understood that new legislation, which would allow for a levy on incineration of up to €120 a tonne, will be in place within weeks.

Mr Tierney said no final decision on levies had been made by Government and that Mr Gormley was out of step with other Green parties in Europe in relation to incineration. In a recent position paper put forward by Alliance 90/Greens, the German Green Party supported incineration over mechanical biological treatment (MBT), Mr Gormley’s favoured form of waste treatment, Mr Tierney said.

The paper by Dr Michael Weltzin, scientific assistant to the party, said MBT had been supported by the Greens “in the early days”, but was now seen only as an intermediate solution.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Poolbeg incinerator work set to restart

CONSTRUCTION OF the controversial Poolbeg incinerator could restart within months following the decision of An Bord Pleanála to grant permission to Dublin City Council to compulsorily purchase land required for the facility.

An Bord Pleanála will this week write to the council to say that it does not intend to hold public hearings on the application to acquire 65 plots of land along the coastline.

The letter will give the council the authority to confirm its compulsory purchase order (CPO) for the land.

The decision means the council will no longer need a foreshore licence from Minister for the Environment John Gormley to develop a water-cooling facility for the development, which was the last barrier to the construction of the 600,000 tonne capacity incinerator.

Construction of the incinerator began last December but has been suspended since May because, developers Covanta said, of the lack of a foreshore licence which had been applied for in August 2008.

Mr Gormley has previously said that he is not delaying making a decision on the licence, as responsibility for foreshore licences was only transferred to his department last January.

By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence as it would have automatic access to the river water.

The council applied for the order in the middle of August last following a request by Covanta.

The compulsory purchase order process is often a considerably lengthy one, involving protracted oral hearings.

However, An Bord Pleanála said they received no valid objections to the order and so there was no requirement for a hearing.

The board did receive objections from residents’ associations and environmental groups to the compulsory purchase of the land but, as these were not “notice parties”, ie owners of the land, it dismissed their appeals.

The owners of the land, a 1.7sq km plot, are the Minister for Finance (on behalf of the State), the Dublin Port Company and the council itself.

The Dublin Port Company said it had no objection to the order as it would have “no impact on the operations of the port”.

Under the CPO process, the council must publish a notice stating that the order has been confirmed after it receives the letter from An Bord Pleanála.

Three weeks after publication, the order becomes operative and negotiations then begin on the level of compensation to be paid to the landowners.

However, there is provision within this timeframe for a judicial review of the CPO decision to be sought.

It is unlikely that any of the three landowners will take this step, as they didn’t object to the order in the first place.

Other parties could seek a review, if they can establish that they have a “substantial interest” in the land.

Legal sources specialising in planning law said that this would be difficult for anyone to establish if they weren’t the owners of the land, particularly if they had already been excluded from the process by An Bord Pleanála.

Damien Cassidy, who is chairman of the Ringsend, Sandymount and Irishtown Environmental Group, was among those whose objections to the order was considered invalid by An Bord Pleanála.

The group had objected on the grounds that the compulsory purchase order lands included part of a public road and footpath.

At the time it submitted the order, the council said that it had no intention of blocking the public right of way.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

The Poolbeg incinerator

THE “MEXICAN stand-off” – as Fianna Fáil councillor Jim OCallaghan characterised it – between Minister for the Environment John Gormley and Dublin city manager John Tierney over the Poolbeg incinerator project shows no sign of being resolved. Essentially, Dublin City Council’s management is dug in on one side of the peninsula, unwilling to walk away from its contract with US waste-to-energy company Covanta, while the Minister snipes at them from the Custom House, using every weapon in his arsenal to frustrate construction of the controversial €350 million incinerator. And he is not a disinterested party: before he was re-elected in 2007 as a Green Party TD for Dublin South East, where the Poolbeg site is located, one of the planks of his platform was that he would oppose the project.

This undoubtedly is why he has taken steps as Minister for the Environment to ensure that it does not go ahead, by enunciating the terms of a new waste management regime that would favour mechanical and biological treatment of residual waste and put incinerator operators at a commercial disadvantage. It also explains why he has declined to approve the foreshore licence Covanta requires for its cooling plant at Poolbeg. This has led Dublin City Council’s management, acting on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, to issue a compulsory purchase order (CPO) for the strip of land needed – thereby circumventing Mr Gormley.

The new element in this shambolic scenario is the “break clause” that apparently forms part of the contract between the councils and Covanta; as reported by RTÉ, it became effective on Sunday last because a number of requirements in progressing the project had not been met. However, instead of exercising its right to terminate the contract, Mr Tierney told a meeting of Dublin City Council on Monday that the council’s management had decided to opt for an extended “review period” until next May to consider what could, or should, be done. The main reason for this turn of events is that the council has already invested so much in the Poolbeg project – some €60 million and probably double this figure if land costs are taken into account – that it is not minded to walk away from it at this stage.

Mr Tierney is clearly buying time. The council’s application for a CPO will have to be considered by An Bord Pleanála and local objectors are likely to want to have their say. Even though the appeals board has already granted planning permission for the incinerator and the Environmental Protection Agency has issued a licence for it, this will inevitably open up the wider argument about whether such a large mass-burn unit is what Dublin needs. Even the narrower issues over the CPO itself are likely to take months to resolve. And by then, Mr Gormley may have steered through his new waste management regime, which would effectively make the project redundant. Or he may no longer be a minister. Whatever the outcome, it should not be driven by political ideology or administrative defensiveness but by hard-headed pragmatism and the need to meet EU environmental standards and to protect the public purse.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

City manager to extend incinerator contract to May

DUBLIN CITY manager John Tierney has said he could now terminate the contract with the developers of the controversial Poolbeg incinerator, but has decided to extend it until next May.

City councillors last night called on Mr Tierney to publish the contract with incinerator developers Covanta which RTÉ last week reported could be terminated last Sunday if conditions necessary for the development of the facility had not been met by that date.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who has a copy of the contract, has yet to grant a foreshore licence for a cooling facility needed for the plant.

Mr Tierney said the contract was subject to a confidentiality clause, but notwithstanding that he said “some people have seen fit to comment on the contract in public”. As elements had now been put in the public domain, he said he would ask Covanta if it would agree to a redacted version being published which would omit any commercially-sensitive information.

“It is probably not open to us to find out how the breach of confidentiality occurred,” he told councillors.

He said while he had the right as of last weekend to terminate the contract, some €60 million had already been spent on the development and up to €60 million was expected to be claimed by those whose land had been compulsorily purchased for the development.

He said this did not take into account the further costs the council could face from compensation claims from the developer. He could not put a figure on these claims as they would likely be a matter for litigation.

He had extended the contract to give time to consider “the way forward” for the project. It was now likely that the incinerator would not be built before 2014.

Mr Tierney said the council was following existing waste policy in relation to the development of the incinerator, but if Mr Gormley changed waste policy with the effect of making the incinerator unviable “someone will have to pay for what has been spent to date”.

He said the managers of the four Dublin local authorities had been put in an “impossible position”. They had been given the responsibility by Government to ensure waste policy was implemented but “at the 11th hour complete and utter uncertainty has been created”.

Construction of the incinerator began last December, but has been suspended since May because, Covanta has said, of the lack of a foreshore licence.

An application for the foreshore licence was made to the Department of Agriculture in 2008. Responsibility for determining foreshore licences was transferred to Mr Gormley’s department last January.

The council, following a request from Covanta, last month began a process to compulsorily purchase the land needed for the cooling facility. By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence from Mr Gormley. The compulsory purchase process could involve a Bord Pleanála hearing, and could involve further delays for the project.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Council will not break incinerator contract

DUBLIN CITY Council has denied claims that it could break its contract with the developers of the Poolbeg incinerator without incurring costs, including potentially punitive compensation payments.

The council was responding yesterday to a report on RTÉ’s Prime Time that a “get-out” clause in the contract signed with incinerator developers Covanta in 2007 would allow it to terminate the contract tomorrow.

The programme reported that the contract for the development of the 600,000 tonne-capacity incinerator runs out tomorrow and the council could extend, renegotiate or walk away from the deal if conditions necessary for the development of the facility had not been by that date.

Minister for the Environment John Gormley has yet to grant a foreshore licence for a cooling facility needed for the plant.

The council yesterday said it did not intend to break the contract and that the incinerator was essential to dealing with Dublin’s waste.

“The Prime Time report on the project aired last night (Thursday Sept 2nd) stated that the council could ‘walk away with no cost’ . . . This is factually incorrect,” the council said.

It said the four Dublin local authorities had already spent substantial sums to date in land acquisition, statutory processes and client representative costs. Dublin city manager John Tierney has previously stated that these costs amount to about €120 million.

The council also said that it was committed to further “major expenditure” in relation to the purchase of lands on the site.

“This does not take into account any compensation that might be payable to the PPP company should the contract be terminated,” it said.

Substantial costs had also been incurred by Covanta, the council said. A spokesman for the company could not be contacted yesterday.

A source close to the project said the compensation, which would be payable to Covanta, would be in the region of €200 million. He also said that tomorrow’s date was no longer relevant in terms of the contract and no moves would be made by either side.

The council said it would be updating city councillors on the matter on Monday night at the first council meeting of the new term, and that it would be making no further comment on the contract until that time.

Mr Gormley, who is in possession of a copy of the contract, was not available to comment on the matter yesterday. However, last week he said that the contract should be renegotiated. A spokesman yesterday said that Mr Gormley’s position remained that the facility was too large and would end up costing the taxpayer money.

An application for the foreshore licence was made to the Department of Agriculture in 2008.

Responsibility for determining foreshore licences was transferred to Mr Gormley’s department last January. Construction of the incinerator began last December but has been suspended since May because, Covanta has said, of the lack of a foreshore licence.

However, the council, following a request from Covanta, last month began a process to compulsorily purchase the land needed for the cooling facility. By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence from Mr Gormley.

The compulsory purchase process could involve Bord Pleanála hearing, and could involve further expense and delays for the project. It is not known if the contract was renegotiated at the time the council agreed to start the process.

Mr Gormley last March appointed accountant John Hennessy SC to carry out an independent examination of the contract and its financial implications.

Mr Hennessy’s report is due shortly.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Call for revision of Poolbeg contract

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said today he would not be "browbeaten or intimidated" by anyone into issuing a foreshore licence for the €350 million Poolbeg incinerator.

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Gormley reiterated his opposition to the project, which is to be located in the Green Party's leader's constituency of Dublin South East.

He also called for a renegotiation of the Poolbeg contract between the US developer Covanta and the Dublin city councils and said he was ready to sit down with the principals involved to discuss a way forward on the issue.

Mr Gormley denied he was opposed to the controversial incinerator simply because it would be situated in his backyard.

"It is untrue that I am saying that because of some Nimby (Not in my backyard) concern that I'm saying this should not go ahead. The fact is that the biggest sewage plant ever constructed in this country was built a stone's throw from my own front door. Why? I accepted it and believed it was a good idea," he said.

The Minister said the Poolbeg incinerator should not be constructed because the contract between the councils and the US developer Covanta stressed that 320,000 tonnes of waste would have to be supplied or else the councils would be forced to a fee to the firm.

Mr Gormley claimed the taxpayer would end up paying for the shortfall.

"Why should we go ahead with a plant with 600,000 tonnes when we know for a fact that Dublin City Council cannot supply 320,000 tonnes and the taxpayer will end up picking up the tab? Why should we go ahead with that? It would be irresponsible to proceed," he said.

Mr Gormley added that he believed the contract between the councils and Covanta needs to be renegotiated. He said he didn't believe the contract is one that can be fulfilled without changing waste policy.

The Irish Times revealed last week that the incinerator project is set to face further delays and costs following a decision by Dublin City Council to compulsorily purchase 65 plots of land along the coastline.

The council has been asked by Covanta, the company developing the incinerator, to buy the land because it has not yet received the foreshore licence which would allow the company use water from the river Liffey for a cooling system for the incinerator.

By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence as it would have automatic access to the river water.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Costs of incinerator should be a burning issue

There has been no public scrutiny of the costs for planning and running the Poolbeg incinerator, write JOE MCCARTHY and VALERIE JENNINGS.

THE DEAL struck between Dublin City Council and Covanta for the Poolbeg incinerator is a closely guarded secret so the public has been unable to judge the value for money in this project.

We know from two previous mistakes – e-voting machines and the Westlink toll bridge – that the public has lost millions through bad deals struck by public servants making poorly-informed decisions.

There has been no public scrutiny of the costs for planning, building and running this incinerator. In 2007, without reopening the public procurement process, Dublin City Council brought Covanta into this public/private partnership (PPP) when the original consortium of DONG/Elsam withdrew. The council went ahead with an extraordinary contract with Covanta which commits the city to decades of payments whether or not the waste is actually available.

The private operator in a PPP is supposed to bear the risk, but in this case the council has removed the risk by giving financial certainty to Covanta via the 25-year municipal contract at a fixed gate fee for 320,000 tonnes per annum. Thus the people of Dublin are carrying the risk, not Covanta.

We have asked the council at open days, at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Bórd Pleanála oral hearings and via Freedom of Information requests for details of the original financial model and for details of the contract costings but the council refuses to divulge any details on the basis of commercial confidentiality.

Therefore the figures used in this article are our best estimates based on information that is in the public domain and our extrapolations. We would be happy to revise our calculations if Dublin City Council would reveal their actual figures.

Because we do not have details of the “put or pay” contract between the council and Covanta we have estimated a gate fee of €80 per tonne (this estimate is based on figures presented to the oral hearings). At €80 per tonne Covanta would be guaranteed €25.6 million per annum for the first 320,000 tonnes. This revenue is more than enough to make a profit for Covanta.

On the same basis, we estimate the likely penalties for the city council not meeting the “put or pay” clause to be in the order of €14.4 million per annum.

Because the plant is oversized at 600,000 tonnes Covanta will be free to offer the excess capacity at any marginal price it chooses. This could lead to undercutting of other operators. Recycling and mechanical biological treatment (MBT), which are more environmentally friendly disposal methods, would be undermined. This has already happened in US cities where Covanta is operating.

A presentation by Covanta to the Welsh government released under FoI reveals an offer by Covanta to operate a 600,000 tonne incinerator just like Poolbeg for a gate fee of £45 (€53) per tonne. An agreement signed in the US by Elbert County, Georgia, which names Covanta as operator of a planned incinerator the same size as Poolbeg, has a gate fee of just $25 (€20) per tonne.

Why has Dublin City Council apparently committed to a gate fee which is 50 per cent more expensive than the offer in Wales and four times the cost in Georgia?

The additional income to Covanta would be €8.64 million annually over the Welsh price or €19.2 million over the US price.

Then there is the question of revenue from the sale of electricity.

We estimate the electricity revenue from burning 320,000 tonnes to be €11.5 million annually and Covanta generally retains energy revenues from tip-fee type contracts, although again we don’t know what revenue sharing is agreed for Dublin.

Covanta’s extra income in Dublin, compared to Wales and the US, therefore appears to be between €20 million and €30 million annually. Over the 25 years of the contract Covanta could take between €500 million and €750 million in extra income in Dublin.

This is an astonishing amount of money. Cui bono? Certainly not the citizens of Dublin. We begin to see why US big business is leaning so heavily on the Irish authorities to get this project going before too many awkward questions are asked.

Incineration was selected in 1997 based on a flawed analysis. The margin by which incineration was chosen over MBT was just 19 per cent but several costs were omitted, including the cost of the land, the cost of disposing of ash and the cost of CO2 emissions.

The incinerator will produce mountains of bottom ash – 150,000 tonnes every year – and the city council proposed to export this ash from Poolbeg by ship for “recycling” in the UK or Denmark. The cost of transporting the bottom ash was omitted from the original analysis. The impact of handling and disposing of the bottom ash was excluded from both the Bórd Pleanála and EPA hearings.

If, as is likely, the bottom ash is to go to the new landfill at Nevitt in north Co Dublin the planning permission will have to be “rectified”, according to former assistant city manager Matt Twomey.

Bottom ash is an active material because of the heavy metal content and will need a waste licence before being exported or being dumped in landfill. The ash needs to be cured by allowing it to sit for weeks in the air before it can be tested for hazardous classification.

The costs of the ash handling, transport and land for curing have also been omitted.

The original analysis omitted the cost of disposal of fly ash which is toxic and needs specialised handling and disposal, usually in salt mines in Germany. Again the cost of transport was omitted.

The cost of the large quantities of CO2 produced by the incinerator was also omitted.

When all these costs are taken into account MBT is actually cheaper than incineration.

Dublin City Council is spinning about the likelihood of large fines. Fines for breaching the EU landfill directive have not been imposed anywhere and are unlikely to arise in Ireland. This is because the MBT plants already in operation suggest the 2010 target will be met. EPA guidelines on source segregation and regulations requiring the composting of food waste will help the country meet the targets for future years.

If the Dublin region had a number of smaller MBT plants there would be less distance for trucks to transport the waste, more jobs and more competition in the marketplace. This would provide better value for the residents and businesses of Dublin than one enormous incinerator monopolising the waste market. It would also mean that Dublin would not be stuck with an inflexible contract for 25 years, restricting any innovation in waste management.

This project was intentionally split into pieces, each requiring approval from a different authority. There is no proper cost benefit analysis for the overall project.

E-voting and Westlink turned out to be extremely costly to the Irish taxpayer. They were undertaken by the authorities without proper scrutiny of the costs – €60 million in the case of e-voting and €600 million to buy out the Westlink toll bridge. We need an opportunity to discuss the value for money of the proposed incinerator and the enormous costs and profits associated with it.

It is time for an independent, open inquiry into how this project came about, what the costs have been and what the financial consequences will be for Dublin’s citizens.

Joe McCarthy and Valerie Jennings are residents of Sandymount, Dublin. They previously campaigned successfully against the e-voting project.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Poolbeg incinerator project to face further delays

THE CONTROVERSIAL Poolbeg incinerator project is set to face further delays and costs following a decision by Dublin City Council to compulsorily purchase 65 plots of land along the coastline.

The council has been asked by Covanta, the company developing the incinerator, to buy the land because it has not yet received a foreshore licence from Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

Assistant city manager Séamus Lyons yesterday said the council had to resort to buying up the land because the “considerable delays” in securing a foreshore licence were “hindering progress on construction of the plant”.

The foreshore licence, which would allow the company use water from the river Liffey for a cooling system for the 600,000 tonne capacity incinerator, was applied for in August 2008.

By taking ownership of the land, the council would no longer need the licence as it would have automatic access to the river water.

Construction of the incinerator began last December but has been suspended since May because, Covanta has said, of the lack of a foreshore licence. By making a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the 1.7 square kilometres needed for the cooling facility, the council can by-pass Mr Gormley, who is opposed to the development of the incinerator.

The council must seek permission from An Bord Pleanála to execute the orders on each of the 65 sites involved. If the owners, lessees or occupiers of any of the sites object to the order An Bord Pleanála could decide to hold a public hearing on the proposal, which would lead to further delays.

Mr Lyons conceded that these delays could be considerable, but said at least An Bord Pleanála could be relied on to eventually make a decision.

“Given that the application for the foreshore licence has been with government departments for two years Covanta have formally requested the council to use its powers in applying for a CPO.

The council was not withdrawing the application for the licence, Mr Lyons said, and if it was granted first, the CPO process would not be further pursued.

Covanta will bear the cost of buying the 1.7sq km of land. It is not yet known how much this will cost as this will depend on the offer and negotiation process. It will also depend on who owns the land. The council said it was largely in the ownership of Dublin Port Company.

The port company said yesterday that it owns none of it. None of the land is residential, but some plots are sections of access roads to industrial sites and others are public footpaths.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said the Minister has not been deliberately delaying the foreshore licence application. Responsibility for the licences was only transferred to the Minister last January he said, and there was a backlog of 700 applications.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Residents object to council's CPO

RESIDENTS GROUPS in Ringsend and Sandymount are to lodge objections with An Bord Pleanála against Dublin City Council’s plans to buy public land to facilitate the Poolbeg incinerator.

The council is planning to compulsory purchase 65 plots of land along the shoreline near the incinerator site to develop a water cooling facility for the 600,000 tonne capacity incinerator.

However local residents said the compulsory purchase order (CPO) takes in public footpaths and roads and could cut their access to Shelly Banks beach. Representatives of private waste companies are calling for An Bord Pleanála to hold a public hearing on the council’s application.

Covanta, the company building the incinerator, asked the council to buy the land so that it does not have to wait for Minister for the Environment John Gormley to grant a foreshore licence to use water from the river Liffey for a cooling system for the plant.

An application for the foreshore licence was made in 2008. A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said responsibility for foreshore licences was only transferred to the Minister last January and there was a backlog of 700 applications. The Poolbeg application would be dealt with in due course he said.

However assistant city manager Séamus Lyons said the delay in securing the licence was “hindering progress on construction of the plant”.

However, residents have said they will block the council’s plans. The land the council wants to acquire takes in part of Pigeon House Road, which is used to access the southern end of the peninsula. Damien Cassidy, chairman of the Ringsend, Sandymount and Irishtown Environmental group said they were already formulating an objection to the CPO. “If the council gets to go ahead with this land-grab they will be cutting through our right of way to the Shelly Banks.”

A spokeswoman for the council said it had no intention of blocking the public right of way.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie