Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 517: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he intends to put a moratorium on mass incineration at the very least until proper baseline studies of dioxin levels at each proposed siting of a mass incinerator, particularly in view of recent comments from the Environmental Protection Agency that it was not possible to draw clear conclusions from sampling which has taken place in the Ringaskiddy area. [36695/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I assume that the question refers to media reports in the context of the Environmental Protection Agency's study Dioxin Levels in the Irish Environment Third Assessment — Summer 2004. The attributed comment to the agency that it was not possible to draw clear conclusions from the sampling in the Ringaskiddy area is not linked to any EPA concern about levels of dioxin in the area. The agency drew attention to the levels being some ten times below the relevant EU threshold.

The agency also stated that its investigations showed that the concentration of dioxins nationally were uniformly low by international standards and in decline. It should also be noted that in its previous report, Inventory of Dioxin and Furan Emissions to Air, Land and Water in Ireland for 2000 and 2010-2002, the agency demonstrated that 73% of dioxin emissions were generated by uncontrolled combustion activities, principally the domestic burning of waste and accidental building fires, whereas the then nine industrial incinerators operating in Ireland were responsible for just 0.015% of such emissions. In this report the agency also projected that thermal treatment of 1 million tonnes of municipal waste by 2010 would produce less than 2% of national dioxin emissions.

Ireland's waste management policy continues to be based on the internationally accepted waste management hierarchy. Incineration with energy recovery is a key element in this integrated approach, subject to rigorous and independent planning and waste licensing.

I am confident that the conditions and restrictions imposed by An Bord Pleanála and the Environmental Protection Agency are sufficient to afford a very high level of protection to the environment and to human health. In particular, the agency has confirmed to me that it does take into account environmental and human health issues when processing licence applications and that it is satisfied that facilities operating to licence conditions will not endanger human health or harm the environment. In these circumstances I do not consider that the issue of a moratorium should arise.