Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)

Does the Minister and the Government still support the construction of an incinerator in Ringsend? It is hard to know from the soundbites and U-turns of the Minister and the coalition partners over the last few days. Does the Minister accept that we are sending as much municipal waste, if not more, to landfill as ten years ago? Does he accept that Ireland is producing more municipal waste than any other EU country surveyed by the European Environment Agency? Would he accept that the debacle over the Ringsend project will mean the authorities will have to seek a three year extension for the landfill at Kill in County Kildare? Does he accept that householders are being swamped under an avalanche of packaging waste at present? I regularly hear stories of householders having to jump up and down on the top of their green bin to fit the packaging waste into it. That is no way to run a waste strategy. It is the wrong strategy for the Government to pursue. Surely the Government can regulate, legislate and mandate that packaging waste be reduced, so the poor unfortunate householder is not reduced to having to jump on top of the green bin.

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