Green Minister for Environment has weapons to stop the Poolbeg incinerator, writes Mark Hennessy
For months, John Gormley claimed Ireland's handling of waste had entered a new era following his arrival at the helm of the Department of Environment.
Besides voicing his dislike of incineration, the Dublin South East TD did do not do anything else. Now the value of a Minister's utterances, left unsupported without legislation, are shown to count for little.
In truth, there was nothing he could do since his appointment to stop Poolbeg getting planning permission. Though he loathes the project and repeatedly vowed he would see it stopped, he could not have banned the four Dublin local authorities from backing the Ringsend incinerator.
But there are more than a few things that he can do to ensure that it never gets built.
The four local authorities have given a guarantee to Poolbeg's backers that they will send 320,000 tonnes of rubbish every year to the incinerator, or else they will pay a fine for every tonne they are short.
Gormley argues such contracts inevitably cut recycling rates, since it is easier to ship everything unsorted into the burners, rather than go to the trouble of separating it. In a bid to enforce control, Dublin City Council assistant manager Matt Twomey argues it is madness that four rubbish trucks should service the same estate every week.
At first sight, Twomey's argument is sensible, but the real reason for the plan to end the free-for-all competition has nothing to do with his dislike of trucks and everything to do with controlling the supply of waste.
Because the private firms face heavy landfill bills, the best of them enthusiastically back recycling because it creates revenue and cuts the cost of the rubbish they finally have to dump.
In the last ten years, Ireland householders have become quite good at recycling, with recycling/segregation rates rising from 0 per cent to 35 per cent. Gormley believes that the rubbish needing landfill will fall to 400,000 tonnes nationally, barely enough to keep Poolbeg in operation.
If the figure can be met, the incinerators' finances would be in grave danger, if not already bankrupt, while Gormley could deliver a coup de grace by levying a fee on every tonne burnt.
"Ministers have the right to change policies, and he could take action that would make such plants unviable," one former Cabinet minister said last night.
Equally, he could set national legislation governing the regulation of waste collection, thus preventing the type of battle taking place in Dublin between local authorities and private firms.
Even with a fair wind, Poolbeg is unlikely to be open before 2012.