An Bord Pleanála has granted permission for a 250-acre dump in north Cork.
The €56 million Cork County Council development will be built at Bottlehill, a scenic region more than 1,000 feet above sea level and with vast stretches of woodland 15 miles from Cork city.
The council now needs an Environmental Protection Agency waste licence before work can begin.
Twelve conditions have been laid down in the planning decision.
These include a provision that the landfill will close in 2025, and that vehicles travelling to it will use only one route to and from the site.
An environmental monitoring committee must also be established.
This will include two local politicians and two residents.
Residents in the area have reacted with anger to the news. Farmer Mr John Cahill vowed yesterday to fight on.
"We have to protect our livelihood - we'll lie on the road in front of the lorries going to the site if we have to.
"I have been farming here for more than 35 years. I have to use the road to the site four times a day to take cows to and from the yard for milking, as my farm is made up of six parcels of land.
"If the landfill goes ahead, it will rob us and the next generation of our livelihood," he said.
Mr John O'Riordan, who spearheaded the Bottlehill Environmental Alliance campaign against the dump, said the group was deeply disappointed by the decision.
"You would imagine the local community would have been the first to be told.
"We are disappointed, but there was a certain sense that after the ruling in the case of the Indaver incinerator, which got the go-ahead for Ringaskiddy from An Bord Pleanála, that Bottlehill would be given the go-ahead too," he said.
Another local, Mrs Kathleen Curtin, who lives just two kilometres from the proposed dump site also voiced her opposition.
"How can they guarantee that it won't affect the water supply? Hygiene is so important for farming today - the future doesn't look well," she said.
Cork County Council welcomed the decision of An Bord Pleanála to grant approval.
County manager Mr Maurice Moloney said the decision was welcomed but that no works could proceed until the EPA had given its decision on the licensing of the proposed landfill facility.
This application has been with the EPA since the summer of 2001. A decision is expected soon.
Cork County Council said the dump was needed because the amount of refuse it disposed of was set to rise significantly by 2018.
The dumps presently used by the council are set to fill beyond capacity by the end of next year.
The council first announced that it was looking for a site for a landfill in February 1998. Sites at Bottlehill, Grenagh and Watergrasshill were shortlisted in October 1999.
In June 2000 the council announced Bottlehill as the site for the dump.
Since then locals have fought against the decision which included an oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála.