Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)

It is 15 years since the Poolbeg incinerator was proposed. This saga has run for the same length of time as did the Mahon tribunal. For 15 years a local community has feared construction of this incinerator. The contract was at review stage up to end February. This was further extended to 31 August. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, will be aware that €80 million has already been spent on this project, which equates to approximately €5 million per annum since it was first proposed by Dublin City Council. A further €9 million was spent this year on the purchase of land and additional consultation fees.

I welcome the news that the local government audit service will provide a full report of the cost exposure to the Committee of Public Accounts. However, this is too little too late. The money has been spent and a bad contract remains in place. The original contract was for construction of 600,000 tonne incinerator, which is too big for current and projected needs. According to the Hennessy report, a put or pay clause means that Dublin City Council must provide 320 tonnes per year to the incinerator or face fines of €350 million. This has left citizens of this country exposed to fines for a contract from which they, through their democratically elected representatives, were shut out while public servants tried to cover their past mistakes through changes to the law. The council can no longer deliver waste to this monster and thus changes to the law to end side-by-side competition and make the council the owner of the waste stream, which is constitutionally dubious, have been proposed. This uncertainty is putting private sector jobs at risk. Rather than continue to jump through hoops we should scrap the project and bring certainty to the waste market.

I welcome the move by Mr. Joseph McCarthy and Ms Valerie Jenkins to file a complaint about this contract with the EU Commission. It is clear that Dublin City Council has breached EU public procurement in terms of its awarding of the contract on the Poolbeg Peninsula to Covanta Energy. Mr. McCarthy also highlighted the waste in respect of the voting machines but was not listened to. He has undertaken extensive research in respect of this incinerator. Whether we can continue with this incinerator is highly questionable. Former Minister, Mr. Roche, signed the contract for this incinerator before he left office. To his credit former Minister, John Gormley, did his best to prevent it going ahead.

I know the Minister of State has with him a well prepared script from the Department. I ask that he request the Minister to re-examine this contract, which is not working and will result in great cost to the taxpayer. I ask also that he ensure the Minister is not captured by his civil servants and re-examines this contract over the coming weeks. The opportunity exists to prevent further costs to the taxpayer.

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