On 29 February 2012 Dublin local authorities and Covanta reached an agreement on a revised commercial arrangement for the Poolbeg incinerator with a final extension to the end of August. We were told this would be its third and final extension. In June Covanta's chief financial officer, speaking at a J. P. Morgan conference in the US, said that it was proving difficult to raise the necessary capital to fund the Poolbeg incinerator. On 31 August the contract for the Poolbeg incinerator with Covanta expired. There is no sign that Covanta has been able to raise the money to construct it.

It has been made clear by the Minister that the regulation of the waste market will not be rejigged to make the incinerator commercially viable by trying to give the council control over waste collected by private companies. It is now 15 years since an incinerator at Poolbeg was first proposed and it has cost €91 million so far. That is taxpayers' money - that includes the Minister, myself and every working citizen who has paid his or her taxes.

The original contract was to build a 600,000 tonnes incinerator which was far too big for our current and future use. Its proposed location, on a peninsula in the centre of Dublin city with only one road in and out to it, was in the wrong place. This saga has created massive uncertainty in the market. Waste companies have been holding back on investment that would allow us to meet our recycling and recovery targets. Such investment would create sustainable jobs. Some of our semi-State companies have put investment in the recycling and re-use industry on hold awaiting a decision on this over-sized incinerator proposal.

To date the Poolbeg project has involved a cost of €52 million on the purchase of the land alone, €32 million has been given to consultants and that cost to taxpayers is still increasing. It is stated in a report to Dublin City Council this month that the city manager, on behalf of the regional authority, felt it reasonable to consider a further extension. The facts I outlined should lead the Minister to a different conclusion. It is past time for the Minister to intervene in this matter. He may say he has no direct powers in this area but the money of taxpayers and ratepayers is being continuously wasted in this process. Such money could be invested in the recycling and re-use industry. We are still awaiting a decision on whether Covanta can get the necessary money but I do not believe that money can be raised and I believe we will see endless extensions and uncertainty in this matter.

This is a mess not of the Minister's making but he has the skills and the determination to intervene and resolve it. We need a sustainable waste industry and this proposed 600,000 tonnes capacity monster project will destroy that industry. I ask the Minister to take a direct role in this, to step in where previous Ministers have failed to do so. He has the skills and the tenacity to intervene and resolve this long-running saga.

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