Seanad debates

Wednesday, 5 November 2003

Waste Management: Statements (Resumed).

 

Senator Ormonde raised the issue of thermal treatment, which is more acceptable than incineration. It is an emotive subject. When starting out on my political career three years ago, I attended a public meeting where I got what I considered to be good advice from an environmental scientist in charge of environmental science in one of the IT colleges. He put it to me that nobody wants incineration or thermal treatment, but every household chimney burns rubbish at a certain temperature which produces dioxins. He asked what we wanted. Did we want thermal treatment which was regulated and measured and would reduce the dioxins? It would burn at a certain temperature and at the end of year less dioxins would be produced than are being produced in every small incinerator. I put that to the public meeting and it was not well received. That is the position we are in and the question is how to inform and package. I do not have all the answers – I may have been wrong – but the issue of thermal treatment is emotive.

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