An Bord Pleanála has confirmed that agents for a proposed incinerator in Tynagh in east Galway have sought discussions with it under the new Strategic Infrastructure Act.
Residents in the former mining village of Tynagh are due to hold a public meeting next week over the issue.
The request for pre-planning talks on waste to energy thermal treatment has been made by O'Connor Consulting Engineers on behalf of an unnamed party.
It is one of over 30 such applications submitted to An Bord Pleanála by various parties under the new Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act.
The legislation is designed to speed up planning approval for major projects by bypassing local authorities.
Pre-application consultations are mandatory on projects such as thermal treatment, according to the board. The proposed waste to energy installation (incinerator) for non-hazardous waste would be based on part of the former Tynagh mines site.
No meetings with Bord Pleanála staff have been held as yet, and the board has asked the engineering company to submit the applicant's name.
It is understood that the board was still awaiting this information yesterday.
If the applicant decides to proceed after the pre-planning talks, then an application may be made directly to the board. The issue was still at an "early stage", a board spokesman said.
The Tynagh iron ore mine closed in 1982, and Tynagh Energy has constructed an electricity generating station in the area.
However, Fine Gael TD Ulick Burke said that the mines had never been rehabilitated after some four decades of work, and residents had experienced continuous issues with dust and other emissions from the site.
"No State agency has ever addressed this, and the Tynagh people have suffered enough," Mr Burke said yesterday. "An incinerator would be intolerable, and the fact that there are so few details available is very worrying."
Mr Burke said he would have no confidence in an Bord Pleanála being able to handle such an application, given that it is "accountable to no one", and given that previous recommendations by its inspectors had been over-ruled by its own board.
The proposal is set to revive a continuing debate in Galway over waste disposal.
