Dump plan debate time `too short'

A FIANNA Fail councillor in Co Wicklow has complained to the Minister for the Environment about the "farcical" handling of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a planned "super dump" for the county.

Senator Dick Roche, who is also the party's spokesman on finance in the Seanad, said the county councillors had been given only a few days to examine the multi volume EIS before it was submitted to Mr Howlin for consideration.

The proposed new dump at Ballingran/Coolbeg, some miles inland from Brittas Bay, had already provoked widespread opposition. Local people also fear it could be used for Dublin's refuse if the city runs out of other options.

Mr Roche said councillors were expected to digest a huge volume of documentation and to reach conclusions on the contents "within an impossibly short time".

"The excuse proferred for the extraordinarily truncated time allowed for consideration of the EIS was that advertising space had been booked for a public notice on the submission of the EIS to you," he told Mr Howlin.

When it became clear his protests were "falling on deaf ears", Mr Roche circulated a Section 4 motion directing the county manager, Mr Blaise Treacy, to defer submitting the EIS to the Minister until it had been properly considered.

Although this motion had been signed by a majority of the councillors present, including the chairman, the officials ruled it could not be voted upon until this month's council meeting by which time it would have become redundant.

Mr Roche said be believed the "preposterous" way in which the matter had been handled could render the process legally unsound, and he requested the Minister to return the EIS to the council for full debate.