Republican News · Thursday 28 February 2002

Dubliners reject incinerator

BY JOHN SQUIRE

Almost 60 hardy citizens braved stormy weather conditions to attend a public meeting in Ringsend Community Centre on Thursday last, 21 February. They were there to hear Sinn Féin Dublin South East Dáil candidate Daithí Doolan and Tom Prendeville of Earth Watch speak against the incinerator proposed for the Poolbeg peninsula.

The meeting was chaired by Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Féin candidate in Dublin West, and it heard that if the proposal goes through, it will mean hundreds of extra lorries thundering through city streets with dangerous cargoes.

The ash produced as a by-product of incineration is composed of toxic substances like heavy metals and organochlorides.

Daithí Doolan noted that a proposal for such a privately-owned incinerator had been defeated in the mid-1990s but this second proposal dated from December 1998, when the Waste Management Plan that emanated from City Hall contained the "option" of incineration. He observed that the inclusion of this clause was voted for by the representatives of all the larger parties.

Emphasising that "it's not a charity, it's not a service", he added that an incinerator would work to increase waste and ultimately to import it.

He also pointed out that the Waste Amendment Act that gave the City Manager his power in this regard was very much against the spirit of local democracy. Both Doolan and Prendeville demanded that the authorities facilitate provision for recycling.

The meeting heard many insightful and concerned comments and ended with a collective pledge to stop this proposal, even if it means blocking the streets to do it.