The operator of the planned Poolbeg Incinerator in Dublin says it will be built despite threatened intervention by Environment Minister John Gormley.
The company's president today also defended the 'put-or-pay' clause in the contract with Dublin City Council which guarantees a supply of waste to the facility.
Covanta, which will operate Poolbeg, held its first news conference in Dublin today. Construction work on the Poolbeg facility began in December and design plans are due to be ready within weeks
Covanta said that over 780,000 tonnes of waste was sent to landfill in the Dublin area in 2008 and said there was no over-capacity in the 600,000 tonne incinerator in Poolbeg
The company also does not see any point in alternative methods of waste disposal such as mechanical biological treatment as favoured by the Environment Minister, John Gormley.
But Environment Minister John Gormley has said he will put a cap on the amount of incineration and wants the Poolbeg contract independently examined
Government's proposed waste policy 'flawed'
Meanwhile, the Government's proposed waste policy has been described as flawed, failed and a risk to economic development and competitiveness.
The claims are contained in a new report from the economic think-tank the ESRI, which was commissioned by Dublin City Council.
A spokesman for the Environment Minister said the ESRI report contained a number of errors, and pointed to a recent High Court judgement which was extremely critical of the Council's waste policy.
The ESRI asserts that the review undertaken by Environment Minister John Gormley had a pre-determined outcome and contains unachievable targets on reducing household waste.
Specifically, it targets the Minister's proposed policies of limiting incineration, introducing levies and promoting an alternative technology called MBT.
A spokesman for Minister Gormley was dismissive, saying errors in the ESRI report may have a significant bearing on its recommendations.
Independent waste collectors said the ESRI report was fundamentally flawed as its prediction on waste generation was quite simply wrong.
The ESRI has been asked to correct its highly critical analysis of the Government's proposed waste policy due to what are called 'factual errors' and 'misplaced assumptions'.
Meanwhile, the lead author of the Government's international review of waste policy, Dr Dominic Hogg, has said there are serious questions hanging over the ESRI report which led to erroneous conclusions.
Dr Hogg contended there were many errors in the ESRI report which, he stated, might be understandable because the think-tank 'has a very limited experience in the area'.
Citing one example, Dr Hogg said the ESRI stated that carbon dioxide emissions from the Poolbeg plant would be part of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. However, the waste sector is specifically excluded from it.
Dr Hogg says that correcting such mistakes would mean a six fold increase in the levy proposed by the ESRI - and lead the institute to the same conclusions as the international review.
