What is the Fine Gael policy on incineration? Perhaps someone should tell the architects of the party's website that they are spreading confusion.
Following a recent visit by the party leader, Mr Michael Noonan, to Monkstown in the Cork Harbour area, it seemed clear Fine Gael stood four square against incinerators in general and the one proposed for Ringaskiddy in particular.
The party, said Mr Noonan, would introduce a "zero waste" policy after the general election and incineration would form no part of it. Through incentives and controls, industry and domestic waste producers would be brought around to the concept of reusing and recycling. Companies such as Indaver of Belgium, which is proposing to construct the first hazardous waste incinerator in the State, at Ringaskiddy, would have to row in with the Fine Gael-led government's policy direction, Mr Noonan said.
Within days, Pfizer, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the harbour area, had announced that it was going ahead with plans for its own liquid waste incinerator, and then a visit to the party's website produced a startling result. Fine Gael is pro-incineration, and this policy is enshrined in Fine Gael's Vision of Ireland in 2010, a document, according to the website, which was prepared by the "Fine Gael Party leader, Mr John Bruton TD," approved by the front bench in November 1999 and endorsed by the Parliamentary Party (of which Mr Noonan was a member) the same year. In this document, Mr Bruton spelled out the road ahead.
"There is very little experience in Ireland of using large-scale incineration as a final disposal option. Part of the reason for this is the fears of many that poorly operated or inadequately monitored incinerators have repeatedly been shown to be sources of very serious pollutants - especially of deadly substances such as dioxins.
"In fairness, it has also been repeatedly demonstrated that properly located, operated and monitored, high-temperature incineration can be consistently operated over very long periods with no significant pollution," Mr Bruton writes.
He expresses the belief that we must open our minds to a future which involves incineration as an integral part of a waste management strategy.
"We can safely avail of the benefits of well managed and monitored waste incineration without incurring the inherent risks. This is conditional on good planning, good operation and good monitoring," the document, which is in the party's policies section on the website, says.
Could the party's change in policy have anything to do with the upcoming election or the fact that the Indaver plant would be located in the Cork South Central constituency, which may prove to be problematic for Fine Gael?
The website, according to a bulletin point, was last updated a few days ago.