Kildare residents opposing the construction of a two million tonne landfill in the south of the county threatened to walk off the Bord Pleanála hearing yesterday.
Oisín Collins, the Usk Residents Association legal representative, told the hearing at the Stand House Hotel at the Curragh that the the residents were continuing their participation under protest.
He said a High Court order had been placed on the subject site - a disused pit owned by Kilsaran at Usk, 7km south of Kilcullen. The court had ordered the quarry to be reinstated by its current owners.
He noted that the environmental impact statement, provided by developer Greenstar Holdings Ltd, of the proposed landfill would be out of date once the quarry was returned back to agricultural land.
Mr Collins asked if Greenstar was going to build the landfill on top of the restored land or dig it out to its present state.
He said the High Court found the quarry site was an unauthorised structure. He asked the inspector to check the legal implications with the board in that the proposed site would be radically altered and the data and impact statement would be out of date.
"My clients are not very well-funded," he said. "They have to put their hands in their pockets and pay me and all my experts to talk about a hypothetical situation that's not going to happen. Its absurd."
Insp Mary Cuneen said the board was bound to consider the present application before it on the grounds of the permission submitted to Kildare County Council and An Bord Pleanála. However, she would speak to the board in the meantime.
On behalf of Greenstar, barrister Jarlath Fitzsimons said the company had no involvement in the court proceedings. It said the residents had taken the action against Kilsaran.
He said Greenstar, like all the other parties, had to wait for the legal outcome and for an inspector to be appointed by the court to decide how the site should be reinstated. It said it was up to the site owners, Kilsaran, to reinstate the site.
Mr Fitzsimons said that the company envisaged construction on the landfill would begin in 2007 by which time the reinstatement works would be completed. He added that the company would construct the landfill in accordance with the plans submitted.