Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I commend the motion and I commend Fine Gael for providing me with a chance to expose its glaring hypocrisy when it comes to incineration. Fine Gael supported EU attempts to recategorise incineration as waste recovery from waste disposal which, if it had been successful, would have presented incinerator companies with an environmental stamp of approval to roll out incinerators throughout this island and across Europe. Fine Gael speaks out of both sides of its mouth on this issue, opposing incineration in Dublin and Louth while supporting the incineration industry in Brussels and Strasbourg. Its duplicity was epitomised by its MEPs who voted in support of the incineration proposal, with the honourable exception of Deputy Simon Coveney, who voted against the proposal.

The proposed Poolbeg incinerator would require a constant flow of large volumes of waste to be commercially viable. Incinerator companies want people to create as much waste as possible. Incineration is no more than a by-product of hyperconsumerism which the planet can no longer accommodate.

The Government must be proactive in tackling the root cause of our waste problem instead of pushing potentially lethal fixes as solutions. If back garden burning is deadly, and it is, why does this Government wish to promote mass incineration on a wider scale as an alternative? Incineration is a poisonous and costly process and an unnecessary and deadly form of waste disposal. The priority should be about reducing waste instead of facilitating business interests to amass profits at society's expense or, more accurately, at the expense of the health of society.

There is clear public anger at the proposed construction of the Poolbeg incinerator. Fianna Fáil is attempting to push this unpopular project through just as it has run roughshod over communities in Mayo where it is facilitating Shell with the plunder and rape of Ireland's natural resources. If this incinerator goes ahead, it will have wider implications for other campaigns against incinerators such as Carranstown, on the edge of my constituency. Sinn Féin councillors in Dublin supported the rezoning of Poolbeg Peninsula to exclude an incinerator. However, the contentious Protection of the Environment Act 2002 allows incineration to be imposed by the city or county manager. That is no more than a destruction of local democracy by vesting this power in unelected individuals. That Act should be repealed immediately to give local authority members the final say in all such plans.

Those involved in the long campaign against incinerators had hoped that a change in Government, and in particular a Green Party Minister, would bring about a change in policy. The Green Party must clearly and unequivocally state publicly that it will stop this incinerator going ahead. If the new Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy John Gormley, cannot make such a statement, he must seriously consider the reason he is in government. He also must explain his years of campaigning which are now worthless.

I call on the Green Party in particular to come back into the House this evening and acknowledge the real crisis these incinerators will create and the destruction they will visit upon the communities in which it is proposed to develop them. I hope, even at this late stage, those people remember their campaigning expertise and prowess in the past and come in here to support this motion.

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