Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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We will now consider the waste-to-energy facility at Poolbeg, Dublin, with representatives of Dublin City Council. Is that agreed? Agreed.
I welcome Mr. Owen Keegan, chief executive, Mr. Michael Phillips, city engineer and director of traffic, and Mr. James Nolan, project engineer, on behalf of Dublin City Council. I draw their attention to the fact that, by virtue of section 17(2)(l) of the Defamation Act 2009, witnesses are protected by absolute privilege in respect of their evidence to this committee. However, if they are directed by it to cease giving evidence on a particular matter and continue to do so, they are entitled thereafter only to qualified privilege in respect of their evidence. They are directed that only evidence connected with the subject matter of these proceedings is to be given and asked to respect the parliamentary practice to the effect that, where possible, they should not criticise or make charges against any person, persons or entity by name or in such a way as to make him, her or it identifiable. The opening statements and any other document that they provide to the committee may be published on the committee's website once the meeting has concluded. Members are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable.
Before the city council addresses the committee, I wish to draw the witnesses' attention to a number of issues that we wish to discuss: the moneys that have been to date spent by the various local authorities; whether value for money has been achieved; the cost and size of the proposed facility; what contributions the stakeholders will make to meet that cost; what volumes of waste will be supplied to the facility; what its capacity to meet the demands placed upon it will be; what its ability to meet or exceed landfill diversion targets will be; what priority will be given to and targets expected from an integrated, effective and comprehensive recycling and recovery programme within the process; who the suppliers of waste material will be, for example, Dublin-based or Leinster-based local authorities, private waste operators and so on; and what costs and profits will accrue to the local authorities and local communities, including the authority contingent obligation, waste revenue, commercial returns on investment, the community gain fund and benefits from job creation. I ask the witnesses to be mindful of these questions in their interactions with the committee and invite Mr. Keegan to make an opening statement.