Residents prepared to block Poolbeg site access

RESIDENTS PROTESTING against the Poolbeg incinerator in Dublin have said they are prepared to block access to the plant if it goes ahead.

Francis Corr, chairwoman of the Combined Residents Against Incineration, said there was only one way in and one way out of the plant site.

“We will block it if we have to,” she said.

Up to 200 residents of Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount protested against the planned incinerator on Saturday. They were joined by local politicians including Fianna Fáil TD Chris Andrews, Labour TD Rory Quinn, Fine Gael TD Lucinda Creighton and councillors Kevin Humphries and Maria Parodi (both Labour).

Temporarily blocking traffic going to and from the East-Link bridge, the protesters marched from Clanna Gael Fontenoy GAA Club along Seán Moore Road to the roundabout and back again.

Inside the GAA club, Dublin City Council was hosting an information session on the incinerator project. Waste to Energy is a public private partnership between the council and Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd, a joint venture company set up by Covanta Energy USA and Dong Energy Generation A/S, Denmark.

Construction has already begun on the plant, which will have the capacity to deal with 600,000 tonnes of waste a year. The council has said up to 500 people will be employed at the site at peak construction and the plant will provide 60 permanent jobs.

The incinerator has been in the planning for 12 years and locals have protested against it from the beginning.

Their concerns include the effects of traffic going to and from the plant and the danger to health posed by emissions from it.

Ms Corr said it was not too late for the Minister for the Environment, local TD John Gormley, to instruct the council to cancel the Covanta contract, but if this did not happen, residents would not give up.

“We will keep on going until it is over,” Ms Corr added. “There is only one way in and one way out down there; we can block it if we have to.”

Many of the protesters said they had lost trust in the council because of its record with the wastewater treatment plant, also built at Poolbeg. When the plant was at construction stage, residents were told it would not create odour problems, but it took six years for the odour pollution to abate.

“Before it opened, we were told the sewage plant was the most modern in the EU; you can’t trust these people,” local resident Larry Joyce said.

Séamus Lyons, assistant city manager, said the council worked very hard to regain the trust of the people. It dealt with the problems at the wastewater treatment plant as quickly as it could and was very open through all stages of the planning process for the waste to energy plant from the beginning.

Any protests at the access road to the plant would be a matter for gardaí to deal with, Mr Lyons said.