Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)

It seems that every time a Minister comes to this House, he or she is announcing another U-turn in Fine Gael and Labour Party policy. Now that they feel they are safe in government, they are rearranging their objectives. It is ironic that in the last week of the Dáil before the summer break in July 2007, a Fine Gael Private Members' motion condemned incineration and called on the Government to intervene in the planning process in Dublin to stop an incinerator from being constructed there, and now it appears that the landfill levy will be increased. There may be objective arguments for that, but the reality is that the incinerator operators publicly lobbied for it in recent months, including during the general election campaign. In effect, this approach will mean the public has to pay more. Waste charges will increase fairly dramatically. The Cabinet will make its decision on local charges today. Everybody is paying this private charge separately. Everyone will probably have to pay more. In my view, the increase in the levy is another hammer blow to ordinary working people.

I wish to quote from an article about public lobbying by incinerator companies that was published in The Sunday Business Post in January 2011. In the article, a spokesman for a waste management firm, Indaver Ireland, said the company was not opposed to the introduction of an incineration levy and continued:

What the levies debate has not focused on sufficiently is landfills. The current levy on landfills is meaningless, and out of sync with Europe .... the levy is having zero effect. Even the landfill operators acknowledge the need for higher levies.

Those operators were not quoted in the article. The spokesman continued:

It's essential, too, if we are to incentivise proper waste infrastructure investment and avoid EU fines. We wait to see whether the government is serious about finally tackling landfills, but the vibes are not good .... The pending legislation offers the prospect of clarity on the policy front, and the general election may also help to clear the air.

It certainly has cleared the air on the issue because Fine Gael has come in and completely reversed all of its previous policies in this regard.

I am speaking about this issue because an incinerator is being built in my local area. I have publicly said the planning battle on that front is over, unfortunately, and we should learn to live with it. That is the right approach. We should make sure it is monitored properly by the EPA. It will provide local employment. I remind the House that it is proposed to develop another incineration facility in County Meath. That application is currently before An Bord Pleanála. I would like to refer to some of the statements Fine Gael made on incineration before the recent general election. The Minister will be interested to hear what Deputy McEntee, who is now a Minister of State, had to say. According to a Fine Gael press statement:

"The word 'incinerator' should not be in the vocabulary of the new Minister for the Environment, except when he's banning them", the Fine Gael TD for Meath East, Shane McEntee, has said. He called for a much greater emphasis on environmentally-friendly and people-friendly methods of waste disposal.

That summarises the type of campaign Fine Gael and the Labour Party have been running for almost 15 years, since Fianna Fáil went into government in 1997 after a Labour Party Minister had given the go-ahead for incineration.

The reality is that incinerators create much public disquiet in local areas. The jury is out on them, to some extent, in relation to health issues. Genuine fears are being expressed about health issues and incinerators. It has been proposed that an incinerator be developed at Nobber, County Meath, which is the home village of the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee. The local GP is one of the foremost opponents of the proposal in Nobber. He has made a strong argument against it on health grounds. We should listen to the arguments of those who come from a medical background. The individual concerned is a reasonable person who does not try to scare people.

The Minister might argue that this is Fianna Fáil policy. The only Government I ever supported did its best to slow down and halt incineration. That is a fact. Fine Gael has come full circle since the start of 2007. Perhaps the Poolbeg incinerator was not as much of an issue as time went on. That could be why Fine Gael has done this U-turn. It is striking that it chose to make this issue the subject of one of its first Private Members' motions in the last Dáil. Like this Bill, that motion was considered in the last week before the summer break. Fine Gael made its policy absolutely clear at the time.

When Deputy Hannigan, who has done a great deal of good work in campaigning against incineration in County Meath, was a Member of the Seanad, he said it was not the case that people "secretly want" incineration. I think he had been accused of that. I firmly believe he is opposed to incineration. People have a genuine suspicion that when Opposition parties campaign on issues, they do not really believe what they are saying and they will not do anything about it when they are in government. We are not talking about Fine Gael having to implement policies that we originally put forward. We are talking about a party that campaigned to ban incineration - the Minister was involved in that campaign - facilitating incineration. It is not just a question of Fine Gael, which said the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government would ban incineration, doing nothing - in fact, it is doing the reverse. There may be objective reasons for the approach being taken. I wish to make clear that I am not in any way suggesting the Minister is under the influence of Indaver Ireland or any incineration company. However, it is a fact that by adjusting the landfill levy, he is doing exactly what Indaver Ireland and other incineration companies publicly campaigned for. It will affect ordinary people. It is fair and reasonable for the Seanad to hold these promises to account. As I have said, hardly a week goes by without a complete U-turn on one of these promises. It is done without any shame.