Galway councillors are to ask a deadline extension for submissions on a proposed thermal waste treatment plant, after fears of possible health implications were voiced at a public meeting.
The councillors told the meeting, organised by Galway for a Safe Environment, they would seek to have the corporation's March 31st deadline extended.
Over 200 attended the four-hour meeting on Monday night, where people expressed concern that alternative options, including maximum recycling, were not included in the plan.
Many speakers asked why an incinerator was proposed for one of four sites around Galway city when there were concerns about the health threat posed by dioxins from such plants.
Mr Padraig McCormack TD (FG) said local public representatives had not made any final decision about the plan, while Ms Catherine Connolly (Labour) said there was not a single paragraph on health implications in the consultants' report, which recommended the incinerator.
The Mayor of Galway, Mr Declan McDonnell (PD), said he would accept a motion seeking a deadline extension at the next corporation meeting.
Dr Conchur O Bradaigh of GSE said a Danish firm specialising in thermal treatment was involved in drafting the Connacht Draft Waste Management Plan, which made no reference to dioxins. He asked the corporation and council to engage in open debate on incineration.
"It is not enough to tell a corporation meeting that incineration is safe," he said. "We are asking where the evidence is that it is safe. We have presented evidence that there are health risks in the emissions to air and to water through toxic ash, but the consultants have not replied to our concerns.
"Incinerators have been closed all over the world, in places like France and Japan, and they are no longer being built in the US and Canada," he said. "We believe that this plan is an attempt to stampede the people of the west into accepting an incinerator. There is not one reference to the health of the population, and the economic arguments are inadequate."
Dr Uwe Hild, of the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association, said there was no safe way of disposing of dioxins and the plant could pose health risks in the long term.
Mr Joe Bridges of the South East Research Group, who successfully opposed a similar plan for Wexford, said fly ash from an incinerator required a hazardous waste landfill to be located nearby.
"Ireland currently has the best record in Europe in terms of dioxins," he said. "The concept of thermal treatment is out of date. It is just a way of hiding the problem and only allows you to create more rubbish."