15th May 2009
Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, Green Party member of Passage West Town Council and candidate for Cork County Council, addressed the An Bord Pleanála oral hearing into the Ringaskiddy incinerators yesterday. The hearing has now adjourned for the next three weeks.
After the hearing, Cllr. Donnelly, who is a member of the CHASE steering committee, said: “In my presentation to the An Bord Pleanála inspector I focused on three main areas. The first of these was that the direction of development in Cork Harbour has changed, away from being a purely industrial zone to becoming a centre for tourism, culture and amenity. With the closure of the steelworks and the IFI fertilizer factory, Cork Harbour now has the chance to reach its potential as a premium waterfront destination. The Cork Area Strategic Plan calls Cork Harbour ‘Europe’s most exciting waterfront’, and while it certainly has the potential to achieve that, it has not yet done so. However with plans to open up Spike Island to visitors, existing planning permissions for marinas at Monkstown and Passage West, the return next year of the Cork Swansea ferry service, and with ongoing efforts to have Cork City and Harbour achieve UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the impetus for development has clearly changed. The building of a huge obtrusive incinerator in the middle of all of this, would surely scupper any chance of Cork Harbour achieving the global recognition it should have. Sydney Harbour has its iconic Opera House, Cork Harbour would have a monstrous incinerator.”
Cllr. Donnelly continued: “I also discussed how my Green Party colleague, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, John Gormley, has made clear statements as to how national waste policy is changing. Given that five years ago the incinerator was granted planning permission solely on the basis that it was Government policy, it is crucial that the inspector and the board understand that Government policy is shifting. While the full review of waste policy is still underway, and won’t be ready until the Autumn, the Minister has made many clear indications that the policy has shifted away from incineration. For example he recently indicated that there will be a doubling of the landfill levies later this year, with the introduction of a similar incineration levy, with the express intent of making it less economically viable to landfill or burn our waste, and to encourage waste minimisation, recycling and reuse.”
“I finished my presentation by focusing on how there is absolutely no community acceptance for the incinerators in the communities around the harbour, and beyond into the wider Cork community. These communities have fought the incinerators for eight years already unbowed, and will continue to fight for as long as it takes. I told the inspector that it would save our communities a lot of future grief is she refused this planning application now, but that the communities would never allow the incinerators to be built, whatever that takes,” concluded Cllr. Donnelly.
The full text of Cllr. Donnelly’s oral presentation to An Bord Pleanála is available at: https://dominickdonnelly.com/links/dominicks-oral-submission-to-indaver-oral-hearing/
Dominick Donnelly 