A waste management plan for the south-east that includes incineration has been backed by South Tipperary County Council.
Councillors voted by 14 to 11 on Monday to support the 20-year strategy, which proposes that an incinerator be built at a location in the south-east yet to be decided.
The council is the fourth local authority in the region to back the plan, after similar decisions last week by Kilkenny and Carlow county councils, and Waterford City Council.
Waterford County Council rejected the plan, while Wexford County Council, which previously rejected incineration by 19 votes to one, postponed a decision until next month.
The vote by councillors in Tipperary was taken after a lengthy and heated debate. The plan was supported by Fianna Fáil councillors and independent members Mr Christy Kinahan and Mr Eddie O'Meara.
It was opposed by Fine Gael councillors, Labour's Mr Denis Landy, Mr Seamus Healy TD and Ms Phil Prendergast of the Workers' and Unemployed Action Group and independent councillor Tom Wood.
Promoters of the plan, drawn up by consultants Fehily Timoney & Co, have highlighted its emphasis on waste prevention and reduction, as well as reuse, recycling and recovery, some councillors said they had reservations that incineration was included and the potential health risks this involved.
Other members, some of whom recently visited an incinerator site in Copenhagen, said they were reassured by what they had seen. Cllr Joe Donovan of Fianna Fáil said people had nothing to fear from incinerators that were properly run. "The Danish are a terribly healthy-looking race of people. They have had them (incinerators) for 30 years and if there was a problem they would have surely picked up on it by now," he said.