Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the central thesis of the Deputy's question, which is that we must get the balance right. We had 76 local authority landfills in Ireland as recently as 1998, but that is down to 34 today. We are not oversupplied with landfill. There is a five-year supply in Dublin, but if one looks at the lead time, that is very tight. The situation in the rest of the country is somewhat better. The public statements from a particular sector have come primarily from an individual company that has a vested interest in depressing landfill in order to make it relatively more attractive to move into incineration. My job is to make sure that the balance is there and that we have a full range of facilities. An over-reliance on one or the other would not be healthy.

We certainly do not need an incinerator in each of the ten regions. We need to get the balance right and this will be the key to making the whole policy successful.

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