Manager to proceed with plan for waste incinerator

The management of Dublin City Council has said it is disregarding the councillors' decision to stop the development of an incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin.

Councillors voted by a majority of 32 to five on Tuesday night to block the proposed incinerator from the Draft Development Plan for the city, by altering the zoning of the site.

Their decision was welcomed yesterday by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, within whose Dublin South East constituency the incinerator would be built.

However, assistant city manager Mr Matt Twomey said last night the councillors' decision will have "no bearing" on the waste management plan, which allows for the incinerator.

"The Waste Management Amendment Act 2001 enables the manager to proceed with the waste management plan which provides for thermal treatment," he said. "The manager will proceed with the implementation of the plan and the councillors' decision has no effect on that."

Even though the councillors had changed the zoning so that there could be no thermal treatment and no "public service installation" the manager could still go ahead with the incinerator, he said.

However councillors say their vote will force management to put the plan to public consultation. "It's one of the few reserved functions of the council to adopt the development plan. He (the manager) will have to use his powers under the waste management plan to override the wishes of the council," Cllr Wendy Hederman (PD) said.

Local residents opposed to the incinerator were sceptical about the councillors' move. "We have been attending meetings with council representatives for the last three years voicing opposition to this incinerator . . . I don't have faith this decision will stop the incinerator," Mr Damien Cassidy, spokesman for the Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount Environmental Group, said.