Republican News · Thursday 20 June 2002

South Tipp waste decision outrageous

Speaking on Tuesday 18 June, after members of South Tipperary County Council passed the controversial Regional Waste Management Strategy, which includes plans for an incinerator for the region, Sinn Féin's Muiris Ó Súilleabháin described the decision as outrageous.

"An effective waste management strategy should based around the principles of Reduction, Reusing, and Recycling, not burn and bury," he said. "The Regional Waste Management Strategy passed by South Tipperary County Council condemns the local population to incineration and landfill, which will endanger our health and our environment.

"An incinerator, once built, requires a constant stream of waste in order to operate, thus working against real waste reduction. It doesn't offer an alternative to landfill, as the majority of ash produced still ends up in a landfill site.

"Many of the councillors who voted for this strategy have already publicly opposed the building of a private waste incinerator in Rosegreen. For them to turn around and vote for a waste management strategy that includes incineration is hypocritical in the extreme"

"Of course, the reality is that the passing of this strategy by South Tipperary County Council wasn't necessary anyway: the last FF/PD government forced the Waste Management (Amendment) Bill 2000 through the Dáil to take powers over waste management away from the elected representatives of the people on local councils. This made a nonsense of the supposed public consultation and local authority approval process for regional waste management plans.

"The government's policy has been driven by its unwillingness to make the main producers of waste pay their fair share and by the incinerator business lobby which stands to make huge profits from the establishment and running of a waste industry in Ireland."

Ironically, Tuesday 18 June marked the International Day of Action Against Incineration Dublin Sinn Féin Chairperson Daithi Doolan called on the incoming government, in particular Minister for Environment Martin Cullen, to stop forcing incineration on the state.