An oral hearing by An Bord Pleanala into plans by Indaver Ireland for a €150 million twin incinerator in Ringaskiddy opened today with Ireland South MEP, Kathy Sinnott and Green Party Senator, Dan Boyle both expressing their opposition to the proposal.
Indaver Ireland has applied under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 for both a hazardous industrial waste incinerator and a municipal waste incinerator, each capable of taking 100,000 tonnes per annum, at the 12 hectare Ringaskiddy site.
According to Indaver’s planning application, the plant will incorporate a four storey high process building, an 85 metre high flue stack, a turbine hall, an aerocondenser structure, a sampling laboratory and a transfer station and other units at the site.
Ireland South MEP, Kathy Sinnott said that locating the incinerator in the Cork Harbour area was contrary to EU maritime policy which envisages developing sustainable prosperous harbours which integrate fishing, transport, and other water based water activities.
Cork County Council has formulated a Cork Harbour Development Plan and the EU has named parts of the harbour as Special Areas of Conservation while there are also proposals to have the entire Cork Harbour area declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ms Sinnott pointed out that Ringaskiddy is home to the National Maritme College which has the potential to create a thriving sustainable economy in the harbour area through becoming a leading international maritime university carrying out cutting edge research.
"The National Maritime College recognises this and has plans to expand with 500 jobs just for a start. Will this happen? It can, it should and it will if we work hard and we don’t put an absolute enormous, obsolete dangerous rubbish burner plonk in the middle of the harbour."
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle argued the incineration had been a preferred waste management option by government at the time of the last oral hearing into the proposal in 2003 but that had now changed with the advent of a new government in 2007.
He pointed to the fact that Department of the Environment had made submissions to An Bord Pleanála opposing the proposal while he said this change had been acknowledged by the board in its inspector’s report on an incinerator planned for Ringsend in Dublin.
Mr Boyle also pointed to the decision more recently by An Bord Pleanála to emphatically refuse permission for another incinerator at Rathcoole in Co Dublin as well as its refusal to grant planning permission to the Port of Cork for large scale development in Ringaskiddy.
This proposal was rejected by the board's inspector primarily because of the inadequacy of the infrastructure serving Ringaskiddy and this infrastructural deficit was unlikely to be addressed in the near future, said Mr Boyle.
The logic of all these changes was that the opposition to the Indaver plan mounted by both individuals and groups since May 2000 should be matched, not only by the inspector but also by the ultimate decision of the board of An Bord Pleanála.
Today's hearing also heard from Dr Michael Gillen of the PharmaChemical Ireland on behalf of Indaver Ireland who argued that the cost of shipping waste abroad was adding to the operating costs of the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
Dr Gillen said the lack of an integrated waste infrastructure was detering new investment in Ireland while Ireland’s main competitors for foreign direct investment, Singapore, Puerto Rico and Switzerland all had integrated management plans that work.
Dr Gillen told solicitor Joe Noonan, for Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment that PharmaChemical Ireland had no policy as to where a waste to energy plant or incinerator should be located or what scale and size such an operation should be.
The hearing continues.