An environmental group opposed to the building of an incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin is considering legal action against the Dublin city manager to stop its development.
The Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount Environmental Group is taking legal advice on the possibility of suing the city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, if he overrides the council's decision not to build the incinerator.
Councillors voted by 32 to five last Tuesday to block the proposed incinerator from the Draft Development Plan for the city, by altering the zoning of the site.
However, Mr Fitzgerald said the councillors' decision "will not affect the proposed development of a thermal treatment plant at Poolbeg".
The group is investigating whether it could take a case on the basis that the manager is acting in an "anti-democratic" manner by failing to accept the wishes of the council.
"It is unacceptable to state that the decision of the council means nothing," Mr Damien Cassidy, chairman of the group and a solicitor, said.
The group did not want to resort to the courts, but feared it could be left with no other option. "If people who went out and were elected were told their decisions are worth nothing, where then stands democracy? It's an erosion of the rights of the electorate."
Legal inquiries were at the initial stages, he said, and no action would be taken until the manager indicated the planning process had begun.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, whose Dublin South East constituency would be home to the incinerator, had welcomed the councillors' decision.
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/0bcd259b-2f01-4cec-ad76-961379866d32.png)