A waste company has applied to increase the capacity of a controversial incinerator planned for Co Meath by one third.
Indaver Ireland wants to process up to 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, rather than its previous figure of 150,000 tonnes per year, at the site in Carranstown, near Duleek.
The company confirmed it had lodged the new planning application with Meath County Council.
It said it had carried out a 450-page environmental impact statement, which found that the proposed incinerator would not damage the health of locals in the area.
"These independent assessments demonstrate that the proposed waste-to-energy facility will not impact on human health, air quality standards, dioxin levels in the vicinity or food produce," Indaver said.
Indaver Ireland was granted approval for the incinerator in 2003 and received a licence to deal with 150,000 tonnes of waste per year from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last November.
But the No Incineration Alliance, which is campaigning against the construction of the incinerator, has appealed to the Supreme Court so that it can challenge the planning decision in the European Court of Justice.
"We started off fighting what we saw as a regional incinerator that would take waste from Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan. That was bad enough because we were concerned about the traffic and the emissions that come with it but now it looks like we're going to have to fight a national incinerator," said spokesman Pat O'Brien.
He said the locals feared that the incinerator would eventually take in waste from abroad to make the extra capacity commercially viable.
Indaver Ireland has said that its incinerator will not generate nuisance noise, odours or liquid effluent which would affect water quality. It has also said that the increase in traffic would be minimal due to the incinerator's location on a national primary route.
But Mr O'Brien said his group had no faith in the environmental impact reports carried out on the company's behalf.
"We have been calling for an independent health assessment to be done, possibly involving international expertise," he said.
"We have thousands of asthmatics, hundreds of people with chest and lung complaints and high level of cancer and leukemia in this area. We don't welcome anything that's going to increase those levels," he said.
PA