Republican News · Thursday 11 July 2002

Wexford rejects incineration

Wexford County Councillors voted by a 13-7 margin to reject the waste management plan for the South East at their meeting on Monday, rejecting the option of incineration for a second time. Councillors heard that a health study on the effects of incineration commissioned by the Department of the Environment has not yet been completed. Waterford County Council has also rejected the plan, which has been appproved by Kilkenny, Carlow and South Tipperary County Councils and by Waterford City Council.

d Sinn Féin Waterford representative, David Cullinane, has strongly criticised Environment Minister Martin Cullen following his warning to local authorities that the "option of thermal treatment will have to be introduced to tackle the waste crisis facing Ireland".

"I welcome the fact that Martin Cullen agrees that there is a waste crisis," said Cullinane. "However, he omits from his remarks that this crisis is a result of years of neglect from successive governments and local authorities. What we have seen is years of mismanagement of our waste disposal. The sad reality is Minister Cullen has failed to learn from mistakes of the past. He now wants to substitute the burning of waste for the burying of waste.

"What is needed is a sensible National Waste Management Strategy that deals with reducing and recycling of waste, not reaching out for so called quick fix solutions such as incineration."