Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 November 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht

Proposed Incinerator at Poolbeg: Dublin City Council (Resumed)

2:45 pm

Mr. Owen Keegan:

We believe there is sufficient waste. We are satisfied, as is the NDFA, that the gate price that will be charged will be sufficiently attractive to attract waste from private operators. A number of private operators have written to us indicating that they share that view. We cannot compel anybody to go and this plant will have to compete with other destinations for municipal solid waste, but the assessment that has been carried out and accepted by the NDFA is that it will compete. That was also the European Commission's view. When it determined on state aid, it ruled that this was an appropriate investment for the State and akin to an investment a private investor would make in a competitive market.