Dublin City Council has been accused of attempting to mislead politicians and the public over the threat of compensation connected with the Poolbeg incinerator.
The Irish Waste Management Association, which represents private waste collectors like Panda, has said the Council needs to clarify why it never told the public about a 'get out' clause contained in contract.
RTÉ’s Prime Time programme revealed that the contract runs out on Sunday and, if all conditions have not been fulfilled, the Council could extend or renegotiate the deal, or even walk away.
The Council has declined to comment, on the basis that the contract is confidential.
The IWMA says the revelations are in sharp conflict with what it terms ‘repeated threats’ from Dublin City Council that the project had to proceed or the State would be faced with multi-million-euro compensation bills.
The Association called on Dublin City Council to release the entire contract agreed between it and Covanta so that all details can be open to public scrutiny.
The Poolbeg incinerator contract was signed and became operative on 4 September 2007.
It specifies that certain conditions must be met within a 36-month period.
If these conditions have not been met, the contract stipulates, the 'parties may exercise their rights to terminate this agreement'.
It is estimated that €120m has been spent to date on Poolbeg.
How those costs would be covered, in the event on the contract being terminated, is unclear.
Decrease in waste
The amount of waste sent to Dublin local authority landfills has decreased dramatically over the past three years.
New statistics show two landfills have experienced a more than 50% drop in the amount of levied waste between 2007 and 2009.
Statistics secured by RTÉ News from the Department of the Environment show that the total tonnages from Balleally and Arthurstown, which was levied, reduced from 581,000 to 270,000 - a fall of 54%.
The current figure is 50,000 tonnes below what Dublin's councils are contracted to deliver to the Poolbeg incinerator.
Responding, the Council said the figure may be irrelevant because Covanta is confident it will source waste from the Dublin market, other than from the councils.
In a statement, the Council said 2008 was the last year in which there were confirmed statistics and these show 735,000 tonnes from the Dublin region went to landfill.
It claimed there is enough waste for the plant even in a recession and said their plan is over 30 years.
