Dominick Donnelly

16^th February 2009

Hopefully the same arguments will be used in the Ringaskiddy incinerator case

Commenting on the recent decision by An Bord Pleanála to reject planning permission for an incinerator in Rathcoole in Co. Dublin, Green Party candidate for Cork County Council and Passage West Town Council in the local elections, Cllr. Dominick Donnelly said:  “I welcome the decision by An Bord Pleanála to reject planning permission for the Rathcoole incinerator, and I hope that this is an indication that there has been a change in the mindset in the board.  The two Ringaskiddy incinerators are before the board for decision at the moment, and this recent decision gives cause for optimism that they will reject the Ringaskiddy incinerators also.”

Cllr. Donnelly continued:  “The most interesting aspect of this decision is that all three reasons given by the board for the rejection all apply equally to Ringaskiddy.  First of all the incinerator is not part of the local authority’s waste management plan, and this was made clear in Cork County Council’s own report on this proposal.  The second reason the board rejected the incinerator in Rathcoole was to do with traffic on the N7, adjacent to the proposed site.  With the Port of Cork already having been refused planning in Ringaskiddy due to lack of capacity on the N28 and in the Jack Lynch Tunnel, hopefully An Bord Pleanála will use the same argument to reject Indaver.  The third reason for the board’s rejection was that the proposal wanted to build the incinerator in a quarry, and that because of this the board were not convinced that the emissions from the incinerator would not pose a threat to the surrounding population.  With Cork Harbour being effectively a basin, and it being prone to thermal inversions (localised fog) in which the emissions would remain locally, this argument applies equally to Ringaskiddy.  There have been about three thermal inversions in Cork Harbour in the last week alone, which, if the incinerators were in operation, would have caused the harbour communities to be polluted with their emissions.”

“I hope that this is the beginning of the end for Indaver’s ridiculous plans to build two incinerators in Cork Harbour.  It has been a long hard battle for the harbour communities, particularly those of us directly involved with CHASE, but there are signs that all the toil and perseverance has been worthwhile to preserve Cork Harbour as a wonderful place to live” Cllr. Donnelly concluded.