Hearing told Poolbeg is still best site

A senior engineer with the company that selected Poolbeg in Dublin as the best location for an incinerator has told An Bord Pleanála it does not matter that homes will be built in the vicinity of the site, even though distance from housing was one of the reasons for choosing Poolbeg.

PJ Rudden of RPS Consulting Engineers has told the public hearing on the application for an incinerator at Poolbeg that one of the main reasons the area had been chosen from a shortlist of four sites was that it was not near any housing, but this consideration was no longer valid, he said.

Since the site selection in 1999, the council has granted permission for a residential development within a kilometre and a large-scale urban quarter has been planned for the area.

Mr Rudden said there had been developments in relation to the site which did not fit with the original criteria for choosing the site.

"The principal change involving the Poolbeg site, which is not in line with the siting study, is the granting of planning permission for residential development within 1km of the recommended site."

He said his company may have overreacted to surveys done before the selection process which found that one of the public's primary concerns was that incinerators should not be near people's homes. "The site will be much closer to residential development than assumed in the original siting study. Nevertheless, I am not concerned about this."

He added: "Most members of the public now accept that this is a safe technology and not likely to adversely affect the value of adjacent properties. The recent sale of the Irish Glass Bottle site for substantial land values is further indication of this."

Three other shortlisted sites may be used for incinerators in the future, Mr Rudden said.

Ten potential sites over the four Dublin local authority areas were identified and were reduced to four following assessment. The sites shortlisted in order of suitability were Poolbeg; Robinhood in south Dublin; Cherrywood in Dún Laoghaire, and Rathdown and Newlands in south Dublin.

These sites were identified as "most suitable for thermal treatment", Mr Rudden said. "It was determined that a further plant could be sited on any of these sites and that remains the case."

Taking into account all the aspects of the Poolbeg site including the land zoning, availability of land next to the existing Ringsend sewage plant and the potential for a market to use energy produced by the plant, Mr Rudden said it remained his professional opinion that Poolbeg was the best site.

"The Poolbeg location was re- commended as the preferred site following a robust siting procedure carried out to international best practice. In my professional view this is the correct technology on the correct site as part of an overall integrated approach to waste-management in Dublin."