Minister urged to prevent ‘betrayal’ over Poolbeg social housing

Dublin City councillors have called on the Minister for Housing to intervene to prevent an appeal over plans to build almost 1,000 social and affordable houses at the Irish Glass Bottle site on Dublin’s Poolbeg peninsula. Last May, the council said it reached a deal with then minister for environment Simon Coveney, Nama and receiver that State funding would be made available to bring the number of social and affordable homes in Poolbeg up to 900. However, the plans were recently appealed by the site’s receiver Deloitte which wants to reduce the number of social and affordable homes to a maximum of 350.

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Minister rejects Poolbeg jobs claim

Minister for the Environment John Gormley said today he would not be pressured into issuing a foreshore licence for the operation of the Poolbeg incinerator in Ringsend.

The Minister’s comments come after reports that the US ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney had requested a meeting with him over the delay in granting a licence for the controversial project.

Dublin City Council first lodged an application for a licence almost two years ago and until it is issued, the US developer of the project, Covanta Energy, is unable to proceed.

Mr Gormley, who campaigned against the Poolbeg plan before entering Government, said the incinerator licence is being considered but that it is one of a large number of foreshore applications currently being processed.

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Mr Gormley said the issuing of the licence would be dealt with in a "fair and transparent manner" and denied he was deliberately delaying the project.

"My concern is not the shareholders of a private company. My concern is national waste policy,” he said. "This is a quasi-judicial matter and I find it quite unacceptable that people would use publicly the newspapers to actually lobby for this."

Mr Gormley said he believed pressure was being put on him because of his decision to introduce waste facility levies which are designed to penalise large incinerator projects.

"This really isn't about any foreshore licence. It is about my policy direction and they [Covanta] have been applying considerable pressure to ensure I do not proceed with the incinerator levies and have employed a very slick PR campaign to do that," he said.

"I will not be brow-beaten or intimidated in any way and I will continue on with this course of action and will continue with these imposition levies."

Mr Gormley also rejected claims that up to 600 jobs will be created as a result of the licence being granted, saying that a modern incinerator plant would usually employs about 60 people.

“If you put it in those sort of terms, splashed across the newspaper that somehow there are 600 jobs at jeopardy, that puts any minister under severe pressure. But I won't be pressurised and I won't deviate from the course I've embarked upon," he said.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Questions for Gormley on Poolbeg conflict of interest

Hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers’ money could be at stake over hold-ups in granting a licence for an incinerator in Dublin

REBEL FIANNA Fáil TDs created a hullabaloo in the Dáil over John Gormley’s plans to ban stag hunting but a far more important policy of the Minister’s, which threatens to cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of euro, has generated surprisingly little comment.

The issue is Gormley’s handling of the planned Poolbeg incinerator in Dublin’s docklands, or the energy-from-waste project as its promoters prefer to call it. At stake is the city’s future waste disposal system, its natural environment, hundreds of jobs, Ireland’s image as a place to do business and a potentially massive bill to the taxpayer.

The politics of the case, as distinct from its merits or demerits, is that Gormley is an inveterate opponent of the project, as are TDs from all parties in Dublin South East where it is located. On the other side the backers of the plan are the four Dublin local authorities who have a duty to develop the safest and most efficient waste disposal system for the capital in line with EU directives.

Gormley and the local authorities are locked in an increasingly bitter battle. Potential EU fines are starting to clock up, because the continuing over- reliance on landfill is in clear breach of an EU directive which came into effect at the beginning of this year. Meanwhile the commercial developers of the project may be lining up for a multi- million euro legal action over the delaying tactics that have blocked its development.

Gormley has made no secret of the fact that he is not going to allow the project to get off the ground under any circumstances while he is Minister for the Environment and one of his latest moves has been to employ a senior counsel to try to pick holes in the contracts.

The project, first mooted over a decade ago, has been approved by An Bord Pleanála, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Development Finance Agency and the Department of the Environment itself. Site clearance work is complete but, before it can proceed, a foreshore licence is required for the construction of a water cooling system.

Dublin City Council first lodged an application for a foreshore licence almost two years ago and until it is issued the US developer of the project, Covanta Energy, will not be able to proceed. All the preliminary work on the licence has been done and the paperwork has been sitting on the Minister’s desk for months but no decision has emerged.

Questioned in the Dáil a month ago, Gormley told Fine Gael’s Phil Hogan that more than 700 foreshore applications were being processed. “As the licence application in question is one of a large number at different stages of consideration under the foreshore consent process my department will be in contact with Dublin City Council on the matter as soon as possible.” Gormley said.

He went on to say that his understanding was that the various processes had not yet been gone through. The whispers in the corridors of power, however, are that the Attorney General has told the Minister there is no legal reason for him not to issue the licence but so far it has not emerged from the department and there is no sign of it doing so.

To put the delay in context, a foreshore licence was issued within days to facilitate repair work when the Donabate to Malahide railway bridge collapsed a year ago. Of more relevance to Poolbeg, a foreshore licence application was made for the controversial Shell Corrib project in January of this year.

Significant work will be carried out in a special area of conservation and the Shell application had to go to a public consultation with hundreds of written objections being considered. Nonetheless, the permit was granted last week, five months after its initial lodgement. The sponsoring Minister for this project is Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan and the licence was granted by his Green Cabinet colleague, John Gormley.

The Shell decision shows how the system can work, even for a highly controversial project, if the focus is there at political and official level. The Dublin incinerator issue is clearly a matter of strategic national importance not only for the people of the city but for the taxpayers of the entire State.

Apart from refusing to sign the foreshore licence, the Minister has also moved to undermine the Poolbeg plan through the introduction of waste facility levies designed to penalise large incinerator projects. Forfás, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland have made a submission to Gormley opposing the measure and pointing out the damage it will do to job creation as well as the waste-energy market.

The agencies point out that the countries with the best records, like Denmark, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, have reduced landfill to minuscule proportions and rely heavily on incineration, while Ireland is bracketed with countries with poor environmental records like Poland, Hungary and Britain which still rely heavily on landfill.

It is extraordinary that one Minister can simply block the project indefinitely, regardless of national policy, EU policy and legal considerations. Given his clear conflict of interest on the issue Gormley should never have been put in a position where through the exercise of his official functions he could simply hold up the project for as long as he remained in office.

Either the Minister should have taken himself out of the equation in the exercise of his official functions on Poolbeg or the Taoiseach should have insisted that he do so. Gormley and the Greens have many fine achievements to their credit in office in terms of improved planning, alternative energy and political reform but that legacy is in danger of being tarnished by the handling of one major project in the Minister’s backyard.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Gormley concerned over city incinerator

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has said a contract signed by Dublin City Council to develop the incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin may be anti-competitive.

Mr Gormley said he had written to the city manager to express his concern about the contract.

Speaking at an environmental conference yesterday, Mr Gormley said he had examined the council contract and had taken legal and economic advice and had written to the city manager about his concerns.

“If you have an incinerator of that size for 25 or 30 years . . . where you have a contract that guarantees the waste, you are drowning out competition, that is of concern,” he said.

He said other operators in the industry would not invest knowing that they cannot compete with a facility of the size of that planned for Poolbeg.

“I have always said that 600,000 tonnes does not make sense,” the Minister said. The council would have to “go back to the drawing board” if the contract proved to be anti-competitive, he said.

He also said he was prepared to look at a letter from the Irish Waste Association that recommended banning the export of incinerator ash.

It emerged yesterday that a landfill site near The Naul, in north Co Dublin, could become the location for Ireland’s first national facility for the treatment of hazardous ash generated by municipal waste incinerators.

Planning permission for the project is to be sought from An Bord Pleanála by Murphy Environmental Hollywood Ltd (MEHL), which already operates an inert landfill in Hollywood, The Naul.

The company said the site is strategically located between the Indaver incinerator now under construction in Duleek, Co Meath, and the proposed Dublin City Council facility planned for Poolbeg.

It said the project is in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Hazardous Waste Management Plan and the National Development Plan and should therefore qualify as “strategic infrastructure”.

MEHL has requested a pre-application consultation with An Bord Pleanála to determine whether the application can be considered under the Strategic Infrastructure Act, bypassing Fingal County Council.

The company is to seek approval for a change of use of the existing landfill at Hollywood while maintaining its current annual capacity limit.

A separate EPA waste management licence will also be sought.

“All waste treated at the facility will be non-biodegradable meaning it will not accept food waste and consequently have no odours, no methane, no vermin and no impact on greenhouse gases,” it said.

“The facility is expected to create more than 50 construction jobs and take 12-months to complete. Once operational, it is anticipated an additional 10 people will be employed directly,” the company said.

The announcement was made a day after the Irish Waste Management Association highlighted the absence of any facility here to treat incinerator ash and called for a ban on its export to other countries.

MEHL general manager Patricia Rooney said exporting ash not only resulted in considerable expense, but was also contrary to EU directives requiring each member state to deal with its own waste.

However, Minister for Food and Horticulture Trevor Sargent yesterday said he feared the toxic ash repository could damage farm production in north Fingal.

The Green TD for Dublin North said he had made his feelings on the matter known to Minister for the Environment John Gormley.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Poolbeg Planning scheme

THE POOLBEG Peninsula Planning Scheme is being introduced under the €4.5 billion masterplan for the further expansion of the docklands published by the Dublin Docklands Development Development Authority last year.

The planning scheme allows the authority to grant permission for developments, bypassing the normal planning process of the local authority planning system.

Developers must however comply with the planning scheme for the area which dictates building heights, uses, densities and standards in relation to apartment sizes.

The scheme also specifies urban design principals, such as the width of roads in the development and the amount of recreational space. It also stipulates environmental and energy standards.

The development will initially be served by bus only, but the authority says it will be a high frequency service running in its own corridor separate from the road. Ferry or “water taxi” services and a Luas line extending from the Point Village are eventually planned. However, the Luas extension is not part of the Government’s Transport 21 plans.

Submissions can be made on the plan until April 6th. Please contact bps on 0404-66060.

Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Olivia Kelly

Payments to Poolbeg incinerator experts top €19m

Dublin City Council has splashed out more than €19m on experts in the preparation of plans for the controversial Poolbeg incinerator.

However, one company -- consultant engineer's MC O'Sullivan & Co -- has received the lion's share of the spending spree. The council paid the company more than €13m for its expert opinion on plans for the new waste-burning facility.

A further €5m was paid to RPS Consulting Engineers who have taken over MC O'Sullivan.

Other substantial consultancy fees were paid to Elsam Kraft A/S (€250,000), AWN Consulting (€90,000) and BDO Simpson Xavier (€69,781).

Dublin City Council refused to comment on the figures yesterday. However, it has stated in the past that the waste-to-energy plant will generate enough energy to provide electricity for 50,000 homes and district heating for a further 60,000.

According to Labour Cllr Kevin Humphreys, some of the market research surveys commissioned by the council "were geared to give the impression that there was support in Dublin" for the facility.

High

He added that although MC O'Sullivan had been hired over several years to bring the scheme up to planning permission stage, the figure was "extremely high".

Residents in Ringsend are set to seek a judicial review this month against the decision by An Bord Pleanala to grant permission for the incinerator.

They claim any potential accidents at the plan, which will burn 600,000 tonnes of waste a year, would have knock-on effects across the capital city.

Irish Independent

www.buckplanning.ie

Poolbeg smell to be gone by July

The foul odour which has emanated from Dublin's main sewage plant on the Poolbeg peninsula in Ringsend since the facility was built in 2003 will be eliminated by next July, Dublin city manager John Tierney has pledged.

Although work is already taking place to address the problem, complaints in relation to the smell increased last year by almost 500 per cent, compared with 2006. The €300 million plant, which opened in June 2003, brought to an end the dumping of more than 40 million gallons of raw sewage into Dublin Bay each day. However, while the plant substantially improved water quality, a putrid smell has regularly affected the surrounding communities of Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount.

The plant was built under a public private partnership with the ABA consortium, involving Ascon, sewage specialists Black & Veatch and Anglia Water. The council has refused to sign over full control of the operation of the plant to the consortium until the odours are eliminated.

A number of attempts to control the odours were made in the first two years of operation of the plant but these were largely unsuccessful. Following an independent review of the operation of the plant by a US engineering firm in 2004, the consortium agreed to a programme of engineering works to eliminate the smell.

Short-term works began in 2006 involving the installation of "odour friendly" sludge processing equipment, new odour control units and upgrading of settlement tanks. This was followed by a more comprehensive programme of engineering works which began last year which, it is intended, will eliminate the smell permanently.

Odour complaints made to the council in 2007 far exceed those of 2006. Some 60 complaints were made in 2006 compared with 286 in 2007, with complaints peaking in June last year at 105.

The high level of complaints in the summer were due to the sludge drying process, the council said. Relatively high numbers of complaints in April (62), September (27) and March (24), were also due to the drying process, the council said.

The driers are expected to be upgraded by the end of spring 2008. The programme of works will not be finished until November, but Mr Tierney said the smell should be gone by July.

He said the council was now planning to expand the capacity of the plant. A design brief was issued in recent weeks to a number of shortlisted consultants and bids for the extension, which it is estimated will cost over €50 million, are expected shortly.

A new plant, to be built somewhere on the north Dublin coastline, will allow for the development of the greater Dublin region up to 2030.

The Irish Times

www.buckplanning.ie

Plan to protect Poolbeg stacks

Dublin City Council plans to add the Pigeon House chimneys at Poolbeg to the Record of Protected Structures (RPS), in a move which could restrict the area's redevelopment as a new residential quarter.
The 680ft candy-striped twin chimney stacks at the ESB's Poolbeg generating station have been one of the city's most recognisable landmarks for more than 30 years, but have never enjoyed protection from demolition.
The council's southeast area committee has voted to add the chimneys to the RPS on the grounds that they are an essential part of the city's industrial heritage. The chimneys are now being assessed by the council's conservation office, which will report back to the councillors in September, who will then make a final decision on the proposal.
The move follows the decision last month by the ESB to close the Poolbeg power station by 2010. A spokesman for the ESB said no decision had been made on the future of the stacks and it was unlikely that any decision would be taken until the plant closed.
The company has also yet to decide whether it will sell the 90-acre site on which the stacks stand. The site is likely to become prime development land in the coming years with plans to move much of Dublin port's activities outside the city and proposals to turn the Poolbeg area into a high-density urban quarter.
However, if the chimneys are added to the RPS, any development would have to incorporate the two giant stacks, which, while considered a vital piece of Dublin's heritage by the councillors, could be seen as an eyesore by developers and homebuyers.
Labour councillor Dermot Lacey, who originally proposed the preservation of the chimneys, said it was essential they were preserved now, before any decisions on the future of the site were made.
"A lot of people are going to be living in Poolbeg, it is going to be a new community, but it's also important that we preserve the old and these chimneys are an important part of our industrial heritage."

Olivia Kelly
© 2007 The Irish Times