Incineration | Dominick Donnelly

Archive for the 'Incineration' Category

Cllr. Donnelly is confident incinerators will not get planning permission

26^th April 2009

The oral hearing for the Ringaskiddy incinerators starts on Monday 27^th April, and will proceed for about three weeks. Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, Green Party member of Passage West Town Council and candidate for Cork County Council for the Carrigaline electoral area, who has been part of the steering committee of CHASE (Cork Harbour Area for a Safe Environment) for the past eight years, is confident that finally the threat of the incinerators in Cork Harbour will be refused at this oral hearing.

Cllr. Donnelly said: “At the last An Bord Pleanála oral hearing into the Ringaskiddy incinerators over five years ago, the only reason planning permission was granted was on the grounds that incineration was part of Government policy at the time. That is clearly not the case any more. The Minister for the Environment John Gormley has made a number of statements to that effect, in advance of the complete review of waste management policy due later this year.”

Cllr. Donnelly continued: “A number of other things are different this time, which should make it impossible for Indaver to get planning permission. An Bord Pleanála refused planning permission for an incinerator in Rathcoole in Co. Dublin, on grounds which can largely be replicated in Ringaskiddy. Also the board refused the Port of Cork planning permission in Ringaskiddy last year for their container terminal on transport grounds, which would also apply to the incinerators, albeit to a lesser extent. Also the Department of the Environment have put in a very strongly worded submission on this application, in which they show that Indaver have basically ignored the fact that their proposed incinerators are in very close proximity to Special Areas of Conservation in Cork Harbour, such as Monkstown Creek and Loughbeg. All of this adds up to it hopefully being inevitable this will be the end of the road for the threat of incineration in Cork Harbour.”

Cllr. Donnelly welcomes announcement of oral hearing for Ringaskiddy incinerators

Published April 15, 2009 Cork Harbour , Environment , Incineration Leave a Comment

27^th March 2009

Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, the Green Party member of Passage West Town Council and candidate for the Carrigaline electoral area of Cork County Council, has welcomed the announcement from An Bord Pleanála that they will conduct an oral hearing into the application by Indaver Ireland to build two incinerators (one for municipal waste and one for toxic waste), starting on the 27^th April at the Cork Airport Hotel.

Cllr. Donnelly said: “For those of us who have been fighting these incinerators for the past eight years, the announcement of this oral hearing is welcome news, as I am confident that this oral hearing will kill off Indaver’s ridiculous and dangerous proposals, once and for all. The communities around the lower harbour have developed huge expertise in fighting planning applications such as this, and I am confident that by presenting a united front in opposition to this proposal, it will finally be defeated this time.”

Green Party motion aims to make incinerators non-viable

Published April 15, 2009 Cork Harbour , Environment , Incineration , National Issues Leave a Comment

9^th March 2009

At its annual convention over the weekend, the Green Party / Comhaontas Glas passed a motion, calling on the Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, to sign a ministerial order to reinstate the proximity principle for waste management. The reinstatement of the proximity principle would mean that waste for disposal, incineration or landfill, would not be able to be transferred between any of Ireland’s eight waste regions. In other words all waste for disposal would have to be dealt with within each region. The proximity principle was removed a number of years ago by a ministerial order signed by Dick Roche during his time as Minister for the Environment.

The motion, which was put forward by the Cork East Greens, was proposed by the Green Party candidate for the Midleton electoral area of Cork County Council and Midleton Town Council, Malachy Harty. Commenting on the motion, Mr. Harty said: “This motion is very important in that it helps to make the proposed incinerators in Ringaskiddy non-viable as they would only be able to take waste from the Cork waste region, and not bring it in from anywhere else in the country. I am delighted that the members of the Green Party supported this motion at the annual convention by more than a two thirds majority. This mandates our party leader, the Minister for the Environment John Gormley, to put the ministerial order in place.”

At the convention the motion was also supported by Cllr. Dominick Donnelly, the Green Party candidate for the Carrigaline electoral area of Cork County Council and Passage West Town Council. Cllr. Donnelly commented: “I am confident that our party leader will act on this motion very shortly, and this will put a further nail in the coffin for Indaver’s plans to build two incinerators in Ringaskiddy, which are currently before An Bord Pleanála. For those of us who have been fighting Indaver for the past eight years on this issue, this is great news, and gives us hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Full text of motion:

East Cork Greens propose that the Minister for the Environment should reinstate the proximity principal for residual waste disposal. The proximity principal will require that waste being burned at an incinerator must be sourced within the same county or region that it’s created in. This would dramatically reduce the viability of incineration as a waste disposal method.

East Cork has a rich tourism and agricultural tradition. The area continues to shine in both sectors and has wonderful potential for creating increased value and employment into the future. The area is becoming recognised for its store of good food and culinary mastery. A prominent incinerator on the harbour shores will be detrimental to these sectors.

With good reason, there is a strong fear in Cobh, Midleton and East Cork generally that the proposed incinerator at Ringaskiddy will present a high risk of pollution. These towns lie directly downwind of the proposed incinerator site so that public health, agriculture and tourism will be subject to emissions in the long term. There are also risks from accidents, which happen more frequently that we are asked to believe.

East Cork Greens propose that the Minister for the Environment should reinstate the proximity principal for residual waste disposal. This would apply to waste for landfill or incineration. It would not apply to recyclable or compostable streams. This is something that the Minister for the Environment can do which will make any large scale incinerator in the country unviable, or certainly dramatically reduce its viability. The proximity principal will require that waste being burned at an incinerator must be sourced within the same county or waste region.

The Green Party should promote waste minimisation, recycling and composting, locally. These are growth industries and are ‘Towards a Green New Deal’. Incineration is not.

Cllr. Donnelly welcomes An Bord Pleanála’s decision on Dublin incinerator

Published April 15, 2009 Cork Harbour , Environment , Incineration Leave a Comment

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.