The South East could be hit by another controversy over waste incinerators when Wexford County Council meets tonight to decide on whether to approve a waste management plan for the region.
In a seperate development two weeks ago, Ireland’s leading horse trainer, Mr Aidan O’Brien threatened to move his South Tipperary operation to the US over plans to build a bone and meal incinerator near his stables.
Mr O’Brien is concerned that dioxins from the incinerator will affect the air and local ecology which in turn will damage his horses’ health. Similar concerns have been voiced in Co Wexford where dairying is a major industry.
Wexford Co Council will again vote on the Joint Waste Management Plan for the South East Region this evening and while it voted 19 - 1 last January against the plan, a much closer vote is expected tonight.
Sinn Fein general election candidate in Wexford Mr John Dwyer says many councilors have recently fallen silent over the issue and now intend to support the County Manager, who has the power to approve the plan without referring to the council.
"This vote is all about letting the County Manager off the hook," Mr Dwyer told ireland.com. "He could be forced to make a decision which will highlight the anti-democratic powers the County Manager in every council in Ireland has been given," he added.
Four of the five other local authorities in the region have already approved the South East Regional Authority's (SERA) 20-year waste management strategy which includes the plans to build an incinerator.
The council have voted against the plan which needs to be approved by all the local authorities in the South East region before it can proceed. County Councils in Kilkenny, Carlow and South Tipperary as well as Waterford Corporation have overwhelmingly signed up to the plan which is being led by South Tipperary.
The plan’s aim is to divert 50 per cent of household waste and 65 per cent of bio-degradable waste away from landfill. It also has set ambitious recycling targets.
A site has not been established but there have already been local objections to locations that have been mooted. Residents in South Wexford are particularly concerned the ESB plant at Campile may a likely location.
Mr Dwyer believes the presence of a deep-water port and a train line makes Campile a "logical choice". But Ms Laura Lenihan, public information officer for Joint Waste Management Plan says: "There is no location and no specifics for locations".
She also rejected claims by Mr Dwyer that a commercial firm which would likely own or part-own the proposed incinerator would seek to import waste to boost the plant’s profitability.
"The size for the integrated system has been restricted to 150,000 tonnes per annum which is 34 per cent of the requirement for the South East currently," she said.
Under the terms of the Joint Waste Management Plan for the South East Region a thermal treatment plan should be operational by 2009.