Dominick Donnelly

5^th May 2009

As the second week of the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing into the application by Indaver Ireland to build two incinerators in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork begins, the Green Party’s candidate for the Carrigaline electoral area of Cork County Council and for Passage West Town Council, Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, has criticised Indaver for trying to hide from the public the true magnitude of the effects their incinerators would have.

“For most of last week, when Indaver were presenting their case to An Bord Pleanála, their “experts” hid behind impenetrable and obscure language, which the ordinary members of the public had no hope in understanding.  In fact the Inspector reprimanded them for this.  When Indaver did eventually condescend to speak in more ordinary language, they made it sound as if what they planned to build would have no more impact on the people of Cork than if they were planting a flower garden.  They claimed their incinerators would have such little effect on health, visual amenity, traffic, property values, wildlife, pollution, etc, that any community should be welcoming them with open arms ,” Cllr. Donnelly said.

“However the people of Cork are not so gullible as to be taken in by this hogwash.  The communities around the lower harbour are resolute in their opposition to Indaver’s proposal, and have very good reasons for opposing these incinerators so vehemently.  We know that these incinerators would have permanent detrimental effects on the quality of life of those living anywhere close to Cork Harbour, and we are not willing to accept those risks.  We know that incinerators are bad for our health, particularly for young children and the unborn.  We now that this will create a bad perception of Cork Harbour as the country’s dumping ground.  We know that building incinerators at the end of a peninsula with only one main road in makes no planning sense.  We know that the scale of the building proposed would be a permanent blot on the wonderful visual landscape of Cork Harbour.  However we also know that we will do everything in our power to prevent this happening, as we have clearly shown over the past eight years,” Cllr. Donnelly concluded.