A hearing into the granting of a waste-management licence for Ireland's first toxic-waste incinerator has opened in Cork.
The Environmental Protection Agency granted a draft waste management licence to the developer Indaver Ireland last October.
The decision to permit development of the €93 million facility at Ringaskiddy in Cork Harbour has angered locals, who have come together into an environmental campaign group, Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE).
Indaver has also appealed the terms of the licence, claiming its requirements are so restrictive that they will force the company to reject waste that the facility should be able to handle.
Under the terms of the existing licence Indaver is allowed to develop two incinerators at Ringaskiddy, with a combined capacity to burn 200,000 tonnes of waste per annum.
The first of these is intended to deal with hazardous waste, the second with non-hazardous waste.
In May 2003, Cork County manager Mr Maurice Moloney proposed planning permission be granted but the plan was voted down by 30 votes to 13.
This result was appealed by Indaver to An Bord Pleanála, which, after oral hearings, recommended granting planning permission for the incinerator, despite its inspector finding against the planning permission on 14 separate grounds.
Following that decision the Ringaskiddy and District Residents' Association brought a High Court challenge - which granted them leave to seek a judicial review of the Bord Pleanála decision.
Indaver Ireland and opponents of the development will make submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency at the oral hearings today.
The Green Party TD for Cork South Central, Mr Dan Boyle, said that unless the EPA waste licence for the facility is withdrawn following the oral hearing, the general public can have "no confidence" in the process that will follow.
He said the Director General of the EPA was on public record as being in favour of incineration and added that the most recently appointed director of the EPA had been directly employed by Indaver.
Mr Boyle said the EPA's terms of reference rated "protection of the economy" as more important than care for the environment.
He also said that in its history, the EPA had "never not granted a waste licence where planning permission has been achieved.
"Given this set of circumstances, those who continue to campaign against a toxic waste incinerator for Ringaskiddy enter into this oral hearing process remaining cynically ill-disposed that they are likely to receive any type of justice."