MINISTER FOR the Environment Éamon Ó Cuív has described as “very regrettable” the leaking of a confidential report in relation to the contract for the Poolbeg incinerator.
Extracts of the unpublished report were included in a letter sent last Friday by former minister for the environment John Gormley to Mr Ó Cuív. Similar details were contained in a statement issued by Mr Gormley last Monday.
The report, by John Hennessy SC said the “put-or-pay” clause in the council’s contract with US waste management company Covanta, which requires the council to provide waste for the incinerator, could cost up to €350 million.
The report was commissioned by Mr Gormley almost one year ago and was submitted last October, but had not been published by the time he left office. In his letter to Mr Ó Cuív Mr Gormley urged his successor to publish the report “in full without any further delay”.
Mr Gormley said he was concerned the city council could use the election period to push ahead with the plant while political attention is focused elsewhere. The exchequer could be saddled with huge potential costs as a result, he said.
The publication of Mr Hennessy’s report was a matter of “public interest”, Mr Gormley said and he called on Mr Ó Cuív to publish it within seven days of the date of the letter.
However, in a statement yesterday Mr Ó Cuív said it was not possible to publish the report immediately. He said Mr Gormley had, as minister, received legal advice that the Government must have regard to commercial confidentiality issues in any decision it might make to publish the report.
“Against this background, it is very regrettable that elements of the report have found their way into the public domain in recent days, in advance of the Government concluding its consideration of the matter,” Mr Ó Cuív said.
He said he was anxious to ensure the issues related to the publication of the report were considered as soon as possible.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley last night said the former minister for the environment had been on the cusp of publishing the report when the coalition collapsed.
He said Mr Gormley had received advice from the Attorney General, just days before the Greens pulled out of Government, that the report could be published if it was in the public interest. Mr Gormley was concerned the project would go ahead without information that was of vital public interest being in the public domain.
In response to the comment made by Mr Ó Cuív that it was regrettable elements of the report had been put in the public domain, Mr Gormley’s spokesman said what would be regrettable was if “serious financial errors” were made which would cost the public money. “Fianna Fáil were fully in favour of this incinerator from day one,” he added.
The city council has dismissed Mr Gormley’s concerns and described as “hypothetical” the penalties outlined for not meeting the put-or-pay clause.
“The four Dublin local authorities are satisfied that, even after maximum recycling, there will be sufficient waste for the Poolbeg incinerator and therefore the scenario envisaged will not arise,” it said.
Irish Waste Management Association, which is opposed to the incinerator, has also called for the Hennessy report to be published without delay.
