Tony Gregory (Dublin Central, Independent)

I support the Green Party's motion, particularly the demand for the exclusion of an incinerator from Poolbeg in the south-side of Dublin city. I cannot think of a more inappropriate location for an incinerator. It is near the middle of the city, the most populated area in the country. The incinerator would produce toxic emissions, not to mention traffic congestion.

The location of the incinerator has not been sanctioned in the Dublin City Development Plan. Although Dublin City Council opposes the project and while the Government amendment states the Poolbeg proposal will be the subject of an independent determination process by An Bord Pleanála and the EPA, the council's management has spent more than €10 million on the project, almost all on private consultants to promote it. It seems like a fait accompli to me, yet the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, postures and claims to oppose it totally.

Communities across Dublin, including those in Ringsend, East Wall, North Wall, North Strand and Clontarf, are strongly opposed to the incinerator but they are denied any real say in the decision-making process. This is a classic example of the death of local democracy.

On other aspects of the motion, I support the Green Party's view that legislation should be introduced to return powers to local authorities so waste management planning would be a reserved function of the elected councillors. I trust this will have the support of any future coalition in which the Green Party Coalition might participate.

I support the establishment of a waste research and development programme to support innovative projects. An example of such a project arises in the Stoneybatter area in my constituency. Residents on Sitric Road have, without any State support, set up a marvellous, innovative composting and greening neighbourhood information project on a pilot basis. The goal is to cultivate an organic garden in a small railed-in space at the gable wall at the end of the road. Neighbours take their organic waste to the composting unit and vegetables, fruit bushes and trees are cultivated organically in a tiny urban space. The project has never been vandalised.

This type of community effort could be replicated throughout the city as an informative, educational and environmentally sound measure, yet various State bodies, including the Minister's Department, the EPA, OPW and even Dublin City Council appeared not to be interested and were unwilling to assist when contacted.

I support the Green Party's proposal that collection services for all domestic recyclables be free of charge. It is simply counterproductive to charge people for making the effort to recycle. This is one reason I opposed the bin tax and I believe the Green Party councillors who supported the Fianna Fáil proposal to introduce the bin tax at Dublin City Council were not acting in the interest of the policies they espouse. Deputy Gormley probably agrees with this.

The bin tax is nothing more or less than a stealth tax and it has alienated a significant section of the community from the process of proper waste disposal. It has not worked in Dublin city, it is resented by many and should be abandoned.

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