Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. I advise him that the transcript of proceedings of the Committee of Public Accounts on the occasion that officials were questioned on the cost involved and the methodology used in respect of the proposed incinerator is required viewing. My colleague, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, did an excellent job on highlighting the facts and the issues involved at the Committee of Public Accounts. I recommend that the Minister reads the transcript. I know he is extremely busy and that sometimes briefs are prepared for him but I ask him to take a step back and read the proceedings of the Committee of Public Accounts. As he rightly said, there is a need for certainty in waste management market. This project has been considered and planned for 15 years. It is outdated and we do not need to plan for it.

We are told in March that the third extension would be final one granted to Covanta. Enough is enough. A fourth extension has now been granted. The cost of the project alone demands that it is ended. The Dublin regional authority went all out on a bet and the bet did not work. If we continue with this it will cost us hundreds of millions of euros. This problem is not of the Minister's making, it dates back to the time of the former Minister, Dick Roche. The Minister has to intervene or review the project sooner rather than later. We are not generating anywhere near the volume of waste we used to and recycling has been growing sharply and is up to the level of 40% nationwide. We are not in any danger of missing the targets in the EU landfill directives. As the recent EPA report shows, we met our targets for waste diverted from landfill two years ago and that indicates that we will also meet the 2013 targets.

This project is out of date and out of time and it is time for the Minister to act. We should face the fact that this will involve hundreds of millions of euro that we have not got. Therefore, it is time to cut and run. Covanta cannot deliver the funding. We have an opportunity with the break in the contract when it failed to deliver on its timescale and dates. Let us take the uncertainty out of this system.

The Minister knows as well as I do that there are companies on the sideline prepared to step in and develop the recycle and reuse industry. One of our semi-State companies has a planning permission application on hold because it is waiting to see what will happen with this incinerator. We have 900,000 tonnes of waste going to landfill that can be composted, yet we are talking about an incinerator. Investment in the composting element of it would be a far better approach.

This issue has been running issue since 1999 in one form or another. It has created massive uncertainty in the area, even for investment in further development. The time has come to knock heads together and come up with a new plan. We cannot continue to harp back to the past and say we cannot intervene. The former Minister, Deputy Gormley, said it previously. The former Minister, Dick Roche, said he signed the contract and then left office. The ball has been passed to the Minister, and I ask him not to drop it. He should take on the vested interests and stop this contract going ahead.

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