The exclusion of the proposed Incinerator for Poolbeg from the fast-track planning process legislation is being hailed as a victory for the Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI). Local residents in Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount lobbied the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, and other local politicians to stop incineration from being included in the Government’s plans for fast-tracking infrastructure of national importance. Mr McDowell who has always supported CRAI in its opposition to the siting of an incinerator on the Poolbeg, confirmed that the proposed incinerator planned for Poolbeg will not be fast-tracked. It will go through the normal planning process and he has conveyed this to the Assistant City Manager Mr Matt Twomey.

Although the Incinerator is still a burning issue, the proposed plan to site a 500,000 ton waste burning factory on the Poolbeg Peninsula is still part of the waste management plan. CRAI feels it has a very good chance of defeating any planning application for incineration in our community. The Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche was reported to have said that while he intended that crucial waste facilities such as incineration would come under the plans, the special proposal for a municipal incinerator on Poolbeg would not.

While speaking at a press briefing in Shanghai during a trade mission the Taoiseach, was reported as saying when asked about Ireland’s Infrastructure, he would be more than glad to have the powers of the Beijing Mayor when it comes to building roads and incinerators. Instead of having to deal with a myriad of planning boards, followed by High Court and Supreme Court challenges, he could simply decree it.

It is a long time since we had offal factories in Ringsend, and the last attempt to site an Incinerator in 1995/1996 to deal with hospital waste was defeated by the communities with the assistance of Mr McDowell and our local politicians. The people of the area defeated the last planning application for incineration purely on existing planning law. Neither the law or the basic infrastructure of the area has changed since 1996 and there is even more transport on our over-crowded roads. CRAI are very hopeful that they will defeat the proposal to build an Incinerator on the Peninsula.