Newry and Mourne objects to incinerator

Pat McGinn makes his presentation

Newry and Mourne District Council has objected in the strongest terms to the planned incinerator for Carronstown near Drogheda. Earlier this month, Environmental Department Director Hugh O'Neill and Sinn Féin Councillor Pat McGinn made a presentation at the official hearing of objectors in the Boyne Valley Hotel.

Councillor McGinn, vice chair of the Environmental Health Committee, stated that an obvious but important point was that pollution and dioxin emissions do not recognise political borders. "Environmental Problems cannot be partitioned" stated the Fews area councillor and he called for the Environmental Protection Agency to be reconstituted as an All-Ireland body.

He also stated that waste management should be urgently developed as an area of cross-border cooperation and implementation.

The Sinn Féin elected representative in his presentation said that the community that Newry and Mourne Council represents were not consulted as per the legal requirement and he put it to the Inspector that the Environmental Impact Statement was invalid. "This amounts to a serious breach of the EIA Directive which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the competent authority for its implementation" said Councillor McGinn.

He then outlined the Geneva Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. "The Irish government signed up to this Convention and actually used it successfully in its battle against the Sellafield Nuclear Plant," said the Newry and Mourne Councillor. "It is quite ironic that they could not have employed the same legal obligation towards the 90,000 people living in the Newry and Mourne District."

McGinn was closely questioned on his submission by representatives of Indaver, the company charged with building and running the incinerator, and the competence and quality of his performance was well received by the many groups opposing the plant attending the hearing.