Incinerator decision bites the dust for third time

cork | environment | news report Saturday January 21, 2017 23:00 by chase - Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment

An Bord Pleanala have postponed a decision on the Ringakiddy Incinerator Application for a third time. The decision was originally due on 12 July 2016, postponed to 26 October, then to 24 Jan 2017 and has been postponed again with “a proposed decision date not available at this time” according to Bord Pleanala’s website. (http://www.pleanala.ie/casenum/PA0045.htm)

CHASE Chairperson Mary O’Leary said “CHASE understands Bord Pleanala’s reasoning that this is a complex case, which was the reason given for the original postponement of the ambitious 12 July deadline. We recognise thorough examination of the facts presented takes time.

However we struggle to understand the repeated postponement, particularly when serious irregularities in dioxin figures in Indaver’s application were exposed on the final day, which led to hearing Inspector Derek Daly saying it brought “the veracity of documentation in question”. (http://chasecorkharbour.com/serious-dioxin-figure-irreg...lose/)

Invaders incinerator proposal has cast a shadow over the community for 16 years. This current application drew objections from the Department of Defence, PDForra, all local TD’s including Fianna Fail party Leader Micheal Martin and Minister Simon Coveney (then Minister for Defence), as well as from staff at the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI) directly across the road from the proposed site.

The decision has now been postponed to over 6 months beyond the original deadline. It is the view of CHASE that if information submitted in the application is not adequate to merit a decision within a reasonable timeframe to meet with Strategic Infrastructure principles and aims, then it should be refused.”

This third application from Indaver Ireland for a 240,000 tonne incinerator was lodged with An Bord Pleanala on 13 Jan, 2016 following the Bords refusal for the previous application in June 2011.

The community met Bord Pleanala’s 9 March deadline for submissions, having been refused requests for an extension to this deadline, despite the volume and complexity of the material submitted in the application. A month long Oral Hearing at the Carrigaline Court Hotel (19 April – 17 May 2016) followed.