An Bord Pleanála yesterday granted planning permission for the State's first municipal waste incinerator, which will be built at Carranstown, Co Meath, on a greenfield site.
Private company Indaver Ireland, which is also seeking permission for a hazardous waste incinerator in Co Cork, will build the €80 million facility. Its general manager, Mr John Ahern, welcomed the decision.
However, opponents of the plant, including local community groups and politicians, were united in their condemnation, saying the planning process was undemocratic and flawed because no health or environmental issues related to the application were considered.
In addition to a petition signed by 26,000 people, 4,500 individual objections against the planning application were lodged with Meath County Council.
Among those who appealed the council's decision to grant permission in July 2001 were former taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, and former attorney general, Mr John Rogers.
"We will now have an incinerator on our doorstep when the Health Research Board says Ireland does not have the resources to monitor and review the health aspects of it," said Louth deputy Mr Fergus O'Dowd. "While there have been technical improvements in incinerators we will not know about any discharge of dioxins for weeks."
"Fatally flawed" was how No Incineration Alliance, an umbrella group of objectors, described the decision. The group said the move was a temporary setback and promised to continue their fight. "The communities in Louth and Meath are already familiar with the environmental threat posed by their proximity to the Sellafield plant. The last thing we need is another Sellafield-type plant right on our doorstep," Mr O'Dowd added.
Louth deputy and Sinn Féin spokesman on the environment, Mr Arthur Morgan, said he was shocked by the decision and that it was premature given the uncertainty over the technology being used and recent problems the company had with an incinerator in Belgium.
The decision was equally condemned by Louth People Against Incineration. Its spokesman, Mr Ollan Herr, said: "The health research board was unable to discount the possibility of a link between proximity to an incinerator and an increased risk of developing cancer. Surely prudence and precaution should have dictated a refusal by An Bord Pleanála."
Green Party spokesman, Mr Michael McKeon, said that "incineration will be the asbestos of the 21st century", and Ireland should introduce a moratorium on incinerators or face the consequences.
The incinerator will be located between Drogheda and Duleek, on the border between Louth and Meath. Local campaigner Mr Pat O'Brien, who stood in the last general election on an anti-incineration ticket, reiterated that the fight was not over.
"This may still end up before the European courts because of the failure to consider health and environmental matters, and, as such, people's rights were denied." He said the next step would be to object to the company's application to the Environmental Protection Agency for a licence to operate the facility.