Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 431: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will give a commitment that his new waste management policy statement will not contain plans for incinerators or other thermal treatment plants. [15917/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government commits to the development of a coherent national waste policy, adhering to the waste hierarchy, which will aim to minimise waste disposal in landfill and maximise recovery. I am prioritising this commitment, as I am anxious to provide early regulatory certainty, in the form of both policy and legislation, to ensure that the necessary actions and investments are progressed to achieve those aims.

While the issue of appropriate waste infrastructure is a matter, in the first instance, for determination by local authorities through their Regional Waste Management Plans, we must ensure that a range of infrastructure is available to treat the waste we generate in an environmentally appropriate manner. That process of infrastructural diversification must be guided not by a fixation in favour of or against any particular process or technology, but by a policy approach, consistent with the waste hierarchy, which creates the space within which the range of appropriate infrastructure that we need can be brought forward. It is my intention to complete the policy development process by the end of this year.