Gormley moves against incineration projects

The government is set to deliver a crippling blow to the long-term viability of incineration projects in Ireland.
The Sunday Business Post has learned that Minister for the Environment John Gormley has told local authorities in recent days that any move to skew waste management in favour of thermal incineration and landfill would be blocked.
The move will see councils prevented from entering into agreements to divert set amounts of municipal waste to major landfill and incineration operators, significantly diminishing the viability of future projects.
Gormley told all city and county managers that mechanical and biological waste must be recycled and composted.
The move is also a major blow to plans for super-incinerators in Meath and Cork, and may also have a critical effect on plans underway to develop an incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin.
It follows months of speculation over the future of Indaver Ireland’s planned €200 million investment in incineration projects at Ringaskiddy in Cork and Carranstown in Meath.
The company has stopped work on its projects, arguing that landfill has to be made more expensive to ensure that there is enough waste to burn.
Such a concession has already been blocked as part of the agreed programme for government between Fianna Fail and the Green Party.
In the document, which has been seen by this newspaper, local authority managers have been told that they will not be permitted to enter into ‘put or pay’ clauses that would facilitate the supply of minimum quantities of waste to thermal treatment or landfill.

John Burke
© Sunday Business Post