|
The Economic and Social Research Institute’s (ESRI) waste
policy report was a “thinly-veiled excuse” for the construction
of the Poolbeg incinerator, according to the author of a report
commissioned the Environment Minister John Gormley.
Dr Dominic Hogg of environmental consultants Eunomia
has accused the ESRI of “massaging the numbers” to achieve
the results sought by Dublin City Council, which paid for
the report.
Dr Hogg was the lead author of the International Review
of Waste Management Policy, published
last November, which recommends high levies for residual waste
treatment facilities such as incinerators.
The ESRI report
- An Economic Approach to Waste Management Policy in Ireland
- published last month, said the levies proposed in the international
review were several times too high and that the review was
“severely flawed.”
Last week, the Institute admitted
it had made an error in its report and had underestimated
the rate of levies which should be applied to incinerators.
However, it refused to withdraw its report - and, while it
corrected the error, said the central conclusions would remain
unchanged.
Dr Hogg said that the ESRI levies still did not reflect the
actual costs in terms of environmental pollution. “ESRI keeps
getting the economics wrong and insists on massaging the numbers.
They set out a series of economic principles and then choose
to draw on those principles or let them down like a loose
pair of underpants.”
The institute had not based its levies on the environmental
damage caused by incinerators, which was the international
standard used by environmental economists, Dr Hogg said. “They
have chosen selectively their assumptions to ensure that they
come out with a conclusion that is one that their clients
will have them draw. They were paid to come to a conclusion.”
Although Eunomia was paid by the Department of the Environment
for its report, it had criticised a number of Government policies,
including ones put in place by Mr Gormley, Dr Hogg said.
Source - The Irish Times
|
