John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

It is not compatible with Government policy. I cannot give the Deputy the average time, as only two applications have come in and been completed in my Department. This is unprecedented in that it is the first ever case we dealt with under which the terms of both sections 226 and 227 of the Planning Acts were used to disapply certain provisions of the Foreshore Acts and that is why the then consent authority, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, sought legal advice.

The Deputy referred to an interview I gave to RTE. This slick public relations campaign is regrettable. It has been conducted in public and references have been made to the American ambassador to Ireland, which he would find quite embarrassing. I do not believe this is about the foreshore licence, which is a red herring. This is about the change in Government policy and this is why it is not compatible with it.

The issues include my proposal to ensure we have new waste levies in place and the harshness of the McKechnie judgment, which is being appealed to the Supreme Court. That has severe implications for this project. Likewise, the fact that Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council pulled out of the waste market in Dublin has profound implications for this project.

I refer to the information that has been put in the public domain that somehow we will face fines. I will ensure that we comply with the landfill directive. That is a priority for me. It is interesting that people do not appear to have the same issue with fines when we are dealing with, for example, habitat and the protection of our raised bogs. That does not appear to be a problem. In this case, however, when there are vested interests involved, there appears to be a problem. As Deputy Hogan knows, my priority is to ensure we have a shift of policy towards mechanical biological treatment, MBT, and I will shortly open another MBT plant. I am also anxious to have a market develop in this country for solid recovered fuel, SRF.

Finally, it is astounding how the Deputy is playing it both ways. Deputies from his party are going around my constituency saying they are opposing this plant tooth and nail and making all sorts of allegations that I have not done enough and so forth on this matter. Yet, it is clear from the Deputy's stance tonight that he is absolutely in favour of the construction of a 600,000 tonne incinerator.

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