THE FALLOUT from a controversy relating to a foreshore licence for the Poolbeg incinerator in Dublin is to be discussed at a meeting between the Minister for the Environment and the US ambassador.
A spokesman for John Gormley said yesterday he would meet Dan Rooney later this month.
Mr Rooney requested a meeting with Mr Gormley on behalf of Covanta Energy, which was awarded the public-private partnership tender to develop the facility.
The company warned last week that as many as 600 jobs, most of which would be created in the construction phase, could be at stake as a result of delays.
The Minister has come under strong pressure from opposition parties to step aside from adjudicating on the licence given that the incinerator is located in his Dublin South-East constituency.
Mr Gormley has defended his opposition to the project, and denied he has been deliberately delaying a decision on the licence to prevent the project going ahead. He has claimed that if the project proceeded, it would completely undermine his national waste strategy, which has aimed for a recycling rate of 70 per cent.
This would be achieved, he said, by the increased use of a recycling system for waste called mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) rather than through incineration.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan has accused the Minister of breaching the ministerial code of conduct and confirmed he intended to raise the issue with the Standards in Public Offices Commission.
Mr Hogan said there was no way a Minister should be adopting a political stance in his constituency on a particular project while at the same time being directly responsible for all decisions relating to the project.
“It is clear for all to see that the Minister is putting his own personal and party interests ahead of the interests of the public.
“His conduct has in no way been objective, and I believe that he has breached the code of conduct for Ministers.”
