The Cork harbour alliance for a safe environment (Chase) said today's decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to award licences for two commercial waste incinerators comes as no surprise.
Chase said it had no confidence in the agency's ability to make a "reasoned fully informed decision", adding it would now be considering legal action before deciding how to further their objections.
The No Incineration Alliance said: "There is a fundamental human rights issue involved in a process that disregards the need to assess the real risks posed by a plant which will emit dioxins and other highly toxic substances - both into the air, and in the thousands of tons of ash which such plants produce."
"Among those in the immediate area who will be exposed to emissions from the incinerator are the pupils of Mount Hanover Primary School, a few hundred yards away," the group added.
Friends of the Earth also condemned the decision. The organisation's director, Oisín Coghlan, said: "This decision is a backward step for resource management in Ireland. Incinerators are a recipe for waste generation rather than waste reduction. Once built they are monsters that have to be fed."
"Local authorities get locked into long-term contracts to provide a minimum amount of waste or face penalties. Deciding to build incinerators before most people even have adequate and convenient recycling opportunities for many materials is simply absurd," he said.
Opposition parties also reacted angrily to the news.
"The reality is that the conditions which are attached to this licence could have been written by the licence applicant themselves. It will do nothing to assuage public feelings that the development of this toxic waste facility is unnecessary and dangerous," Dan Boyle of the Green Party said.
Eamon Gilmore of Labour criticised the Government, saying it has now committed the country to dealing with waste disposal primarily by incineration "despite all the health issues that arise.
"We need a modern, sustainable waste infrastructure that does not rely on old-style methods such as incineration," Mr Gilmore said.
Fine Gael environment spokesperson Fergus O'Dowd called the EPA's decision "extremely disappointing.
"There are real, genuine and widely held concerns about the health impacts of incinerators, yet the Government has failed to address these health concerns in the process leading up to the granting of these licences," he said.
Sinn Féin's spokesperson on the environment, Arthur Morgan, said the decision "represents not only a kick in the teeth to the two communities concerned, it also represents a dangerous and unacceptable new departure in this country in terms of how we deal with waste".
The Irish business and employers' confederation (Ibec) welcomed the EPA's decision but warned: "The delay in actually putting waste infrastructure in place means that Ireland's waste crisis continues, with exorbitant disposal costs, illegal dumping, enforcement concerns and limited waste disposal options."
Ibec's head of environment, Donal Buckley, said: "Incineration is necessary, safe and environmentally sound. While thermal treatment alone is not the answer, it clearly has a vital role to play, and the time has come to deliver these facilities."