Cllr Naoise Ó Muirí – chairperson, Dublin City Council Environment and Engineering Strategic Policy Committee

Friday 12/11/10

Cllr Naoise Ó Muirí, Fine Gael, has called on the Department of the Environment to cover the €20m cost of Dublin City Council landfill operations for 2012.

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As the dogs on the street know by now, Dublin City Council has been planning a waste-to-energy facility at Poolbeg which would ensure long-term compliance of the Region with EU Landfill directives.

The Council’s delivery of this facility has been stalled by the delay in issuing a foreshore license within the Department of the Environment. The net result of this delay is an extra landfill cost of €20m to be incurred next year with
potentially more in 2012 and beyond.

It is not acceptable that the people of Dublin pick up the tab of €20m for bureacratic delays of this nature.

Minister Gormley as the line minister is ultimately responsible for the running of the DoE.

Under the “polluter pays” principle I am calling on Minister Gormley to ensure that the Department of the Environment provides ring-fenced additional funding to Dublin City Council to cover this unnecessary cost immediately.

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