Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

The sentiment expressed in the motion could be applied directly to Cork South-Central where a similar issue of major concern to residents of the Cork Harbour area has emerged. The people of the area will watch this debate with interest because, to use a pun, it is an opportunity to read the temperature in terms of determining the Green Party's position on incineration. I call for a clear statement setting out the position of the new Government. Specifically, I call on the Green Party leadership to make a clear statement showing that it still reflects the views of communities and groups, including its party members, it claimed to represent on the issue of incineration.

This debate could be sidetracked and become a debate on waste in general. The motion is about incineration and debate on it offers an opportunity to determine the Government's stance on the issue.

Members of the public are justifiably sceptical about waste management policy. Over the years, policymakers have failed to meet their commitments on waste management and neglected to inform members of the public about developments in this area. The reduce, reuse and recycle approach — known as triple R — has failed with massive teething problems, of which I can cite many examples, still to be ironed out. The triple R approach arose from the hierarchy concept used in an EU directive. It referred to reaching sustainability by introducing a waste management programme based on approaches other than disposal. Unfortunately, disposal remains our primary waste management policy. The failure to introduce waste recovery creates the rationale for incineration.

To cite one example of the lack of joined-up thinking on waste management, five different companies collect waste in a single corner block in my constituency of Cork South-Central. As the block straddles the city and county boundaries, two municipal authorities provide waste collection services. Three private companies also collect waste in the area. Two years ago, Cork City Council decided to establish sites to which people could bring paper, bottles and other recyclable materials. At the same time, the county council introduced a pay-by-weight system under which waste charges are calculated according to the weight of the waste collected. This led to people in one local authority area bringing their recyclabes to another local authority area, with the result that Cork City Council removed its recovery facilities. The joined-up thinking needed on waste policy failed to materialise.

Councils are actively engaging in strategies aimed at eliminating their role in waste management, specifically collection. The result will be a democratic deficit in which local authorities have no role or monitoring function in waste management. This became clear in the Indaver case in Cork when local authorities and planners were overruled.

Recent television pictures of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, holding an umbrella on Sandymount Strand brought to mind an image of Mary Poppins. Perhaps we are seeing how a spoonful of ministerial sugar can make the medicine go down. While it was easy for the Minister to take certain positions on the Opposition benches, to continue with the sugar analogy, he must take it or lump it and it appears he will lump it.

The motion presents an opportunity for the new Minister and his party colleagues to put daylight between themselves and the Minister's predecessor who, it is generally agreed, has a poor record in the area of waste management. It is a chance to take a new direction and demonstrate that new thinking has arrived in the Department. We will see over the lifetime of this Dáil whether this is a new Administration.

Speaking to people in the Cork region who have dealt with the Green Party on the incineration issue for more than a decade, it became clear that the Dáil's decision on this motion will set the tone for the Government's approach to waste management for the next five years and determine whether incineration remains on the agenda. I hope the Green Party will take a clear and consistent position when the House divides and that having taken ministerial office, its position on incineration will not go up in smoke.

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