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The governmnet has formally backed Minister for the Environment
John Gormley’s stance on incineration, saying the Green Party
leader has its full confidence to develop proposals on waste
management.
Mr Gormley is understood to have sought the Government statement
in order to challenge evidence given by Dublin city manager
John Tierney at a recent Oireachtas environment committee
meeting. Mr Gormley is firmly opposed to Dublin City Council’s
Poolbeg incinerator, which is being built in his Dublin South
East constituency.
The council came under further pressure when it was revealed
that the Competition Authority is investigating
the local authority’s contract for the facility.
A spokesman for the council confirmed that the Irish Waste
Management Association (IWMA), representing a number of private
waste management companies, had referred the contract to the
Competition Authority. While the council would respond to
the complaint, work on the project would continue, the spokesman
said.
Government spokesmen took the unusual step of distributing
a statement to political journalists during a post-Cabinet
briefing in what was described as an attempt to clarify the
Government’s position on incineration.
'The Government is committed to a resource-management
approach to waste. Minister Gormley has the full confidence
of the Government to develop proposals in that context'
- the statement said.
Mr Tierney had told the Oireachtas committee meeting that
Dublin City Council was going ahead with the municipal waste
incinerator on the Poolbeg peninsula because of - and not
despite - Government policy.
It is understood that Mr Gormley asked fellow Ministers to
confirm that commitments on waste management in the renewed
programme for government, agreed last year, represented the
administration’s current thinking.
Mr Gormley is preparing a draft waste-management policy statement
which will be issued for public consultation.
The Government statement said a decision to impose a levy
on incineration had already been taken and the legislation
to allow for this was being drafted and would be brought to
the Dáil soon.
The Coalition’s policy on waste management and incineration
was outlined in the 2007 and 2009 programmes for government,
the statement said. 'Minister Gormley has responsibility
for driving the development of these commitments through various
policy initiatives including legislation'.
The Government’s programme provided for a 'resource management
approach' to waste which would have 'inevitable'
consequences for the scale and location of 'residual waste
infrastructure'.
The statement added that Mr Gormley was carrying out a strategic
environmental assessment on a proposed cap on incineration
capacity.
The 2009 programme commits the Coalition to a cap to prevent
waste going to incineration which could otherwise have gone
to recycling.
Source - The Irish Times
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