A chara, - Our TDs are preparing for a vote in the Dail on the future of our waste management and few of us are aware of its implications. While there are several positive initiatives within the Bill, it also contains an element that removes the decision-making power over the management of municipal waste from our elected officials and hands this delicate issue over to the city or county manager, a non-elected position.
As we all have gathered from the news, counties and regions have had difficulty adopting waste management plans. Many counties have accepted the consultant's recommendations of super-landfills and incinerators. However, there have been a few areas, including Galway, Longford and Louth, whose councillors and involved citizens have fought the introduction of such disposal measures. Because of this stalemate, the Minister has introduced this Waste Amendment Bill to circumvent the normal process.
Traditionally, elected representatives have been responsible for management of solid waste. In this way, citizens are empowered by their elected officials and have an important say in the way their waste is treated. The Bill removes public accountability, and disenfranchises local citizens by taking this decision-making power away from local representatives. If this Bill passes, citizens, who are hugely effected by the disposal of waste, will have no avenue of redress.
The construction of super-landfills and incinerators will hamper an already impoverished recycling program. Most areas around the country have minimal recycling facilities and very few have kerbside recycling pickup. Our recycling levels are already one of the lowest in the EU. Incinerators, which are very costly to build, require a steady stream of waste to generate enough revenue to finance the capital and operational costs of the facility. This demand for waste will divert recyclable materials to hungry incinerators.
Waste is a commodity that can be reused, composted and recycled. In this way, new industries will be developed, valuable land and natural resources will not be blighted by fields of trash, virgin materials will be used more sparingly, ground water will be free from leachate from dumps/landfills, and our air will be free from potential dioxins and ferans released into the air by incinerators.
Management of municipal waste is a policy question affecting all the people of Ireland, and decisions in such management must remain within the public policy realm. TDs must understand that voters are concerned about waste management, want more recycling programs and don't want their elected representatives running away from important waste policy issues.
We voted our representatives into the Dail to make hard decisions, not to diminish their authority by transferring a traditional legislative power to a local non-elected manager. The Seanad has already passed this Bill and I hope that our TDs will be more courageous than our Senators and vote against this anti-environment and anti-democratic bill. - Is mise,
Mindy O'Brien, VOICE, Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.