Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

When Deputy Gormley, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, went to a public meeting, he said he was opposed to an incinerator in his own constituency. He never thought he would be a Minister with responsibility for the environment six or seven months later. He now has the opportunity as Minister to change the decision, but he has turned around and used all the resources of the Department to give every excuse on why he cannot change it. Of course he can change it. He is the Minister and the buck stops with the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. If he said six months ago in his own constituency that he would oppose it, then he should vote with Fine Gael and the Labour Party tonight. He should do the honourable thing, as should the other Green Party Deputies, because that is what politics is about. It is about giving one's word and representing the people. If Deputy Gormley told the people of Ringsend before the election that he would vote for the incinerator, I would accept that the people had made their choice. However, on this occasion the people did not know the truth. If he was sitting here tonight, he would be telling us why this incinerator should not be built and why it is not needed for Dublin or Ireland. That is why people are cynical about politics. They are not told the truth at election time. If he was against this six months ago, he can write it off tonight because the buck stops with him.

A man whom I will not name bought a building in north Mayo. Of course he had the inside contacts and he set up some kind of waste management facility. He was bringing human waste from Cork. Now Cork is a long way from Geesala in County Mayo. We were not foolish enough to believe that was the kind of factory to be put there. We knew that an incinerator would be put there. We fought it in the council from the beginning to the end. We finished up in the courts with it. The county council granted it even though the waste management officer in the council was opposed to it. He told me two days before it was granted that it would not happen. All of a sudden it happened and we all know why. We went to An Bord Pleanála, which to its credit refused it. It finished up in the courts and we won. An incinerator was planned.

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