The Minister for the Environment is to be notified of the decision by members of Louth County Council not to adopt the draft waste management plan for the north-east. The council has deferred making a decision until September.
In their discussion of the draft plan yesterday, some councillors raised concerns about the inclusion of a form of thermal treatment, possibly incineration.
A motion was proposed by Cllr Declan Breathnach (FF) that the plan be adopted but that it allow the council to consider any additional viable alternatives (to incineration) that may arise in the course of the life of the plan. It was defeated by two votes.
Another motion proposed by Cllr Terry Brennan (FG) to adopt the plan but without the thermal treatment element for a period of two years was also defeated.
However, the council did pass a motion from Cllr Mary Grehan (Independent) that it hold a workshop on incineration.
The county manager, Mr John Quinlivan, said he would not fund such a workshop as MC O'Sullivan, which was retained by the council, had drawn up the plan. The workshop would be held next week and "the county council will be represented by MC O'Sullivan and those who wish to engage anybody else can fund them".
Under the proposed plan, the dependency on landfill will drop from the current 96 per cent to 18 per cent, recycling will increase to 43 per cent while 39 per cent will be thermally treated. The form of thermal treatment has yet to be decided, as has the location for any such facility.