Gormley accuses council of withholding information

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has accused Dublin City Council management of withholding information on the contract for the Poolbeg incinerator from the Oireachtas environment committee.

Speaking before last night’s meeting of the council, Mr Gormley said the local authority was operating outside Government policy in its development of the 600,000-tonne capacity incinerator.

Mr Gormley was speaking for the first time yesterday since claims were made on RTÉ’s Prime Time programme that the contract for the incinerator was to run out last Sunday and that there was a break clause that would allow either side to walk away from the deal.

He said he had been aware of a “so-called break clause” in the contract for several weeks. Further information had been sought from the council on the implications of that clause but as yet no response had been received.

“I appointed an authorised officer to look at the contract. The authorised officer came back with his draft report a number of weeks ago and there was reference made in that to this so-called break clause, this long stop date, but it is a draft report and he still has to get further information from Dublin City Council.”

Mr Gormley said both he and John Hennessy, the authorised officer, had experienced “considerable difficulty” in getting the contract from the council.

“I’d like to see the city council come clean . . . I think for far too long this whole contract has been shrouded in secrecy. We need openness, we need transparency.”

The council had also failed to tell the Oireachtas environment committee, before which city manager John Tierney appeared earlier this year, about any possible break clause in the contract, the Minister added.

“From the very outset we haven’t had information. For example, the Prime Time programme revealed a matter which was not revealed at the Oireachtas committee – there was no reference made to any break clause, as I understand it, when the senior officials went before the Oireachtas committee.”

Claims made by the council that it had followed and was continuing to follow Government policy in relation to the development of the Poolbeg incinerator were spurious, Mr Gormley said. “Let me tell you as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government that they are not in line with Government policy.”

The programme for government stated mechanical biological waste treatment was the preferred form of waste treatment, Mr Gormley said. He added that he had secured a statement from the Cabinet that what was contained in the programme for government was Government policy.

The council had also failed to justify claims that ending the contract would result in considerable costs. “We haven’t seen a breakdown of the waste figures, we haven’t seen a breakdown of the cost incurred, because we were told at the outset that this wasn’t going to cost anything, that the private operator would bear the risk.”

He said the taxpayer needed to be told whether the council could supply the amount of waste needed to satisfy the contract or whether it would have to pay penalties for not supplying sufficient waste to the incinerator developers Covanta.

“Taxpayers should know what they are going to have to stump up if they fail to reach 320,000 tonnes . . . my information is that they are far short of this.”