An anti-incinerator meeting was held by John Gormley, TD Green Party Chairman, in the Clanna Gael clubhouse to assist residents to submit objections to An Bord Pleanala before the deadline of 2nd October 2006.

Speakers included Dr. Anthony Staines, School of Public Health, UCD, Nick Loughnan, CHASE, anti-incinerator campaigner in Cork, Joe McCarthy an independent IT expert and Francis Corr from the Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI).

Francis Corr spoke first and outlined the history of the anti-incinerator campaign in the area.
In September 2004 with the help of all the City Councillors there was a motion passed to re-zone the Poolbeg peninsula but the City Manger overturned the decision. The Dublin Council produced a Waste Management Plan which included Poolbeg as the site for the Incinerator.

In June this year, after a previous meeting at Clanna Gael, a motion was tabled by the Green Party in Dáil Eireann to move that no incinerator be built on the Poolbeg site. The motion was supported by Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and the Independents, but it was defeated by a tiny majority with no PD representatives present.

Joe McCarthy said he had put two years detailed scientific and commercial research into the incinerator and is vehemently opposed to what he called “an unsustainable white elephant.”
He called for the public to make their feelings about the incinerator known by all reasonable means, such as letter-writing, calling radio stations and other agitation. He called the incinerator a millstone around our necks for the next 30 years.

Joe McCarthy said that it would cost €266 million to build the incinerator and €54 million per annum to run it for each of the 30 years. On the health side, he said that in addition to the dioxins and florins there would be a health risk from a large amount of ultra-fine particles, similar to that from cigarette smoke that would be emitted by the incinerator.

Site selection proceeded on a false premise. Traffic assessment was based on having the SE motorway across Sandymount Strand, which is neither built nor planned.

The proposed development by reason of its overall height and scale would be visually intrusive in the landscape. It would be a huge building– as tall as Liberty Hall, as long as Croke Park.

Dr. Anthony Staines spoke for the need of a Health Impact Assessment and warned that the trucks alone would play a significant part in the health problems of the area, as their emissions were low-level and local.

There was no attempt in the 2000 pages of the EIS to address the impact on health in the area and that it was an absolute minimum to expect politicians to ensure that health was not in jeopardy resultant from emissions.

Nick Loughnan, from the Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE) spoke at length for the need of the campaign group to stick together and keep up the protest because, as they had found in Cork, whilst the Planning Inspector had found 14 reasons why it should not go ahead, the Planning Board over-ruled the Inspector to allow the incinerator to go ahead because it was Government policy.

“The reaction to the contributions of the speakers was very positive, and we had a very healthy debate afterwards,” said Mr Gormley. “We tried to keep the meeting focused on practical issues, rather than political statements, as the deadline for making submissions on the proposal to An Bord Pleanála was Monday 2nd October. The panel was able to provide a great deal of useful information on the grounds for objecting to the proposal, as were a number of speakers from the floor.”

John Gormley TD is pictured at a previous anti-incinerator meeting.