Dublin residents attack approach to incinerator

Residents living close to the proposed site of an incinerator for municipal waste generated in the Dublin region have accused local authorities of engaging in token consultation.

The accusation was made at the first consultation meeting with local community groups, hosted by Dublin Corporation last night in Ringsend.

Representatives of the Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI) said the local authority was staging a closed meeting by selectively inviting groups, when the meeting should have been open to all.

The group, which represents more than 3,000 households in the Ringsend, Irishtown, Bath Avenue, Sandymount and adjoining Merrion areas, also objected to RTE personality Mr Mike Murphy, who has substantial property interests in the city, acting as "independent chairman" of the meeting.

The group's spokeswoman, Ms Frances Corr, said Mr Murphy's involvement in a leisure development at Park West in Ballyfermot, located beside a site which was considered for the thermal treatment plant, should have excluded him from involvement.

Mr Murphy said his involvement was a matter for those in attendance (some 120 people representing community, environmental and sports groups).

He would withdraw if they wished, but he said the first knowledge he had of the Nangor Road site being considered and rejected for an incinerator was when he received the CRAI statement before the meeting.

He had been invited because he was involved in development and had a knowledge of planning. He had indicated his fee should go to a local charity. The main residents' group accepted his explanation.

Acting assistant city manager Mr Matt Twomey denied a claim by the Green TD, Mr John Gormley, that people had been excluded from the meeting, although invitations were limited for space reasons.

It was, he said, the beginning of an extensive consultation with residents. The corporation wished to see full participation by all interested parties in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process.

Thermal treatment was necessary if Dublin was to reduce its 90 per cent dependence on landfill to just 15 per cent within the next seven years. It was proposed to thermally treat 25 per cent of the waste and generate energy and electricity from it, he said.

The waste management consultant, Mr P. J. Rudden, of MC O'Sullivan, who has advised the local authorities on their waste management plan, acknowledged concerns related to health impact, emissions and smells from the proposed site. "These are all issues that will be examined in detail as part of the EIA," he told the meeting.

Environmental chemist Dr Heidelore Fiedler of the University of Bayreuth, Germany - one of the authors of a recent EU study on dioxins - said politicians in Wexford had incorrectly linked concerns about dioxins highlighted in the report with incineration.

Dioxins were very toxic and prevalent in the environment, but background levels did not pose a health risk. In any event, dioxin levels associated with incineration in Europe were coming down despite increased incineration capacity.

Ms Sheila Fanning of CRAI said residents were dismayed at the proposals to locate the £65 million facility adjacent to a Natural Heritage area and so many sports and recreation grounds serving the south-east inner city.