An Irish Planning Students Blog » John Gormley

Poolbeg incinerator developers seek meeting with Cowen

Colin Broderick — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:34:57 +0000

It looks as if the Poolbeg Incinerator row is going to turn into a major political quagmire in the not so distant future!

THE DEVELOPERS of the €350 million incinerator proposed for Poolbeg in Dublin, which is opposed by Minister for the Environment John Gormley, have requested a meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Scott Whitney, president of Covanta Europe, told a press conference in Dublin yesterday the company had been in touch with Mr Cowen’s office. “We’ve suggested that at some point a meeting with the Taoiseach might be useful,” Mr Whitney said.

A spokeswoman for the Taoiseach confirmed the request for a meeting had been received and said it was “under consideration”. The proposed incinerator would be located in Mr Gormley’s constituency of Dublin South East.

Mr Gormley’s spokesman said: “This Government will not be dictated to by a private company into changing its waste policy. The aim of Government is to have a waste policy that looks after the interests of taxpayers, consumers and the environment.”

Mr Gormley last week published a draft waste policy plan which would make such incinerators unviable economically.

Mr Whitney insisted the proposed facility was not too large, adding: “Covanta’s always been confident that this project is correctly sized.”

Referring to the Minister’s preferred waste management solution, mechanical biological treatment (MBT), Mr Whitney said: “Why would the Ministry for the Environment want Dubliners to pay more for a less environmentally friendly process?”

He said the proposed project had been extensively vetted, reviewed and approved by “so many Government agencies that I can hardly keep track of them anymore”. He said the application for a foreshore licence was lodged in December 2008 and was still pending.

Referring to Mr Gormley, Mr Whitney said: “It seems to us that he’s saying, in his role as a judge relative to this situation, I know you’re guilty but I’ll give you a fair trial before I hang you.”

Mr Whitney said the construction process had been suspended since May 7th, although site clearance and some excavation had been carried out, “and we’re ready to ramp up at any time when the circumstances dictate”. He claimed the lack of a foreshore licence was holding up the project.

Asked if Covanta would consider suing the State if the project did not go ahead, he said “we wouldn’t rule anything out at this point”.

Mr Whitney said that Covanta had invested “tens of millions of euro to date” in the Poolbeg project.

IrishTimes

Cowen urged to ‘show his hand’ on Dublin incinerator

Colin Broderick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:53:39 +0000

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has been challenged to “show his hand” over the Poolbeg incinerator and declare whether it is Government policy to allow it proceed or to be scrapped.

Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said that it was now incumbent on Mr Cowen to state his position on the planned Dublin regional waste incinerator.

Last week Mr Gormley published a draft waste policy plan which strongly favours mechanical and biological treatment of waste over incineration.

If implemented, it would have the effect of making a large incinerator like Poolbeg unviable.

Mr Hogan said yesterday that Mr Cowen had merely welcomed the consultation process that will now take place in relation to the draft policy.

He claimed that Mr Cowen was “sitting on the fence” despite Fianna Fáil TDs from Dublin, notably the Dublin North deputy Michael Kennedy, supporting the project.

“The Taoiseach has remained silent on one of the major issues of the day and one in which a Minister of his Government has become personally involved in,” said Mr Hogan.

Mr Hogan asserted that Mr Gormley was not in a position to adjudicate on the foreshore licence for Poolbeg as he has a clear conflict of interest.

“Ministers for the environment in the bad old days adjudicated on planning decisions which was wrong. The Minister has to be seen to be above that.

“There is the potential liability of hundreds of millions of euro in the event of a proven case of breach of contract if this does not go ahead,” said Mr Hogan.

The planned facility at Poolbeg has a capacity of 600,000 tonnes. A “put-or-pay” clause requires the four Dublin local authorities to supply a minimum of 320,000 tonnes per annum.

Under the Minister’s proposals, the volume of waste going to incineration would be far less than that.

Dublin City Council yesterday warned that any variation on the contract to build a Dublin regional waste incinerator at Poolbeg could have serious financial repercussions, raising the possibility of a compensation claim.

However, that contention was rejected by Mr Gormley as “scaremongering”.

An authorised officer was commissioned by Mr Gormley’s department last March to examine various issues surrounding Poolbeg, including compensation.

The officer, John Hennessy, is due to report to Mr Gormley this week.

The City Council said it would examined the draft waste policy over the coming weeks but emphasised it was in a contractual situation for the construction of the plant.

Scott Whitney of Covanta, the developers of the incinerator, said there will be more than enough residual waste for Poolbeg, even when Dublin achieves its recycling target of 59 per cent.

IrishTimes

Gormley rejects Poolbeg claims

Colin Broderick — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:32:49 +0000

Minister for the Environment John Gormley has rejected as “scaremongering” and “absolute nonsense” claims that the State will face massive EU fines for landfill waste if the controversial Poolbeg incinerator does not go ahead.

The Minister also said he would this week receive the report of the “authorised officer” he appointed in March to examine the contract between Dublin City Council and a consortium to build the €350 million incinerator.

Senior counsel and accountant John Hennessy was appointed to carry out an independent examination of the Poolbeg contract, including an examination of its financial implications in Dublin.

His remit included assessment of the financial risks should Dublin City Council and the three other Dublin local authorities be unable to meet the volumes of waste committed to in the “put-or-pay” clause of the contract, which requires the council to provide 320,000 tonnes of residual waste every year. The report may also look at the issue of compensation should the Poolbeg project be repudiated or scaled down.

As the war of words continued in the wake of the Minister’s publication last week of a draft waste policy plan which would make large incinerators such as Poolbeg unviable, Mr Gormley insisted Ireland was compliant with EU directives.

North Dublin Fianna Fail TD Michael Kennedy this morning insisted he had no reservations about the plant and called on Mr Gormley to grant a foreshore licence so the project can proceed.

Mr Kennedy told RTE Radio there was an agreement in place with Covanta Energy to run the plant and that a company that enters a contract has a right to compensation if it does not proceed.

Mr Kennedy would not be drawn on claims Mr Gormley had a conflict of interests in the plant as it was located in his constituency.

Mr Gormley said there was a “co-ordinated campaign saying we’re going to be facing fines. That’s absolutely untrue. It’s scaremongering. I would never allow anything like that to happen as Minister. I’ve been probably the most vigilant Minister in trying to deal with EU directives. I’ve made sure that the waste hierarchy is the thing that we abide by.”

He insisted Ireland would meet its waste management targets for 2010, and said the proponents of the Poolbeg incinerator “want the Minister to come in on his white steed and say ‘oh don’t worry, I’m going to make things nice for you’. Well, I’m not.”

Mr Gormley added: “I’m going ahead with my policy. I will be introducing the levy system.”
Ireland has “the lowest landfill prices in Europe. We have to have a landfill levy because we have to abide by the landfill directive.”

The Minister believed the “path we are pursuing is by far and away the most sustainable path in terms of waste management”. The local authorities “don’t want it because it conflicts totally with their ambition to construct a 600,000 tonnes incinerator”.

He said: “They cannot feed the beast at the moment. It’s just too big. They know that. The only way they can do that is by controlling the waste. They can’t do that in light of the McKechnie judgment.”

The High Court ruled in December 2009 that the council had abused its dominant position in the Dublin waste market by adopting a variation of its 1998 waste management plan, decreeing that waste would only be collected by the four local authorities or their chosen contractors.

Mr Gormley said the authorities wanted him to introduce legislation to reverse the McKechnie judgment. “I’m saying to you absolutely that I’m not going to do it.”

The local authorities, he added, “don’t control the waste”.

IrishTimes

Gormley to announce major changes to planning legislation

Colin Broderick — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:05:16 +0000

MAJOR NEW planning legislation to be published today will dramatically clamp down on retentions for large developments and on the rampant expansion of quarries.

The Planning Bill 2010 will be published by Minister for the Environment John Gormley and is partly designed to target problems that persistently cropped up during the property boom which existing planning legislation was not equipped to deal with.

On the retention issue, the Bill will require that it will no longer be possible for planning permission to be granted for retention of developments built without planning permission, where the development would have required an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The effect of this is that a major development that required an EIA and was built without planning permission must be demolished.

There are also new retention powers in relation to illegal developments on certain European-designated wildlife sites.

In the quarry sector, the new Bill will introduce a strictly time-limited sunset provision which will allow quarries with a generally compliant planning record to apply to An Bord Pleanála to regularise their activities through a new “substitute consent” process.

There will also be a new requirement for local authorities to prepare a complete inventory of all quarries in their jurisdiction. Quarries that never had planning permission or failed to register under S.261 of the Planning Act 2000 will not qualify for substitute consent.

Improved enforcement provisions in the Bill will require local authorities to immediately take enforcement proceedings against quarries which are refused substitute consent or are otherwise non-compliant.

There are also new provisions for the protection and strengthening of public rights of way.

Irish Times

[IT] Gormley to reject remarks on incinerator

Colin Broderick — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:10:13 +0000

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley will express his “dismay” at a Cabinet meeting next week over remarks by Dublin city manager John Tierney on the controversial Poolbeg incinerator project.

Mr Tierney last week said the Minister “must be aware” that Dublin City Council had a statutory obligation to go ahead with the incinerator and that interference with the project could leave the State with a multimillion-euro compensation bill.

The incinerator site is in Mr Gormley’s own constituency of Dublin South East. As an opposition TD, he made a submission to An Bord Pleanála against the application for permission to build the facility. However, on becoming Minister, he was legally precluded from interfering in a statutory process that had already begun.

The Cabinet is holding an all- day meeting in Dublin on Wednesday.

The Dáil is not due back until January 19th and Ministers will use the extra time to discuss issues of general policy in such areas as the environment, local government, energy, and social welfare.

Green Party sources told The Irish Times last night that Mr Gormley would “express dismay at Cabinet about comments by the Dublin city manager on waste policy”.

Mr Gormley is expected to draw attention to the High Court ruling of December 21st which says that when a private company collects waste, it owns that material and can determine where the waste is to be deposited.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie also said the planned Poolbeg incinerator was “not free from uncertainty”.

Mr Gormley said at the time that in light of the decision, the council would be digging itself into “deeper trouble” by going ahead with building the 600,000-tonne incinerator.

On the issue of local government reform, the Minister will stress the need for “strong content” on the powers of regional government and the importance of ensuring that “proper funding” is put in place.

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin will lead a discussion on social welfare policy, including the principle as to whether the lone-parent allowance should be phased out when a child turns 13.

However, Government sources were keen to emphasise there was no question of a decision being made at the meeting on this issue, and that the discussion would be confined to general policy approaches.

Ms Hanafin said last month that the Government’s policy on the one-parent family payment was not working.

She had told Cabinet colleagues the issue should be discussed formally by Government and the systems in other countries examined.

“The idea of continuing to pay somebody until their child is 22 if they’re in full-time education, it just [militates] against that lone parent herself having a stable relationship or marrying or even taking a full-time job, because of the attachment to ‘the book’,” she said.

Ms Hanafin said last month that Britain was in the process of ceasing the benefit when children reached the age of seven, but she thought that was too young and would put too much pressure on both children and parents.

IrishTimes

Gormley ‘open’ to nuclear debate

Colin Broderick — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:30:51 +0000

The use of nuclear power should be open for debate, Minister for the Environment John Gormley told a climate change forum in Dublin today.

“The technologies being developed, which people claim are 100 per cent safe, are still in their infancy,” he said.

“I’ve seen presentations on chlorine fluoride reactors and on pebble bed technology but problems continue even though they say they are addressing the waste problem.”

“I remain to be convinced but I’m not closing the door…I do think we have to have a continued debate on those issues,” he said.

Mr Gormley told the forum, entitled W hat is at stake in Copenhagen? , that he felt a fully-fledged treaty is unlikely to be achieved at the climate conference in Denmark next month.

“I believe we are now looking at the possibility of a politically binding agreement rather than a legally binding treaty,” he said. “It is disappointing and in my view it flies in the face of the fact that we are all too quickly approaching a point where the impact of climate change will become significantly more challenging and cost a lot more to address.”

Environment Protection Agency (EPA) director general Mary Kelly said time is of the essence when dealing with the issue of carbon emissions. She said Ireland is projected to exceed its 2020 emission target by almost three per cent even if all current measures reach their goal.

Some 104 industries in Ireland are covered by the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) and year-on-year these have seen reduction in emissions. However, emissions in the non-ETS sector are more difficult to reduce she said in her presentation.

With agriculture and transport accounting for 70 per cent of Ireland’s non-ETS emissions, she said there is a need to look at different measures including congestion charges.

She said transport demand should be decoupled from economic activity and warned of the dangers of “depending on a recession to cover our international obligations.”

IrishTimes

Gormley publishes International Review of Waste Management Policy

Colin Broderick — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:01:11 +0000

Landfill levy will increase to €30 per tonne, incineration levy will be €20-€38 per tonne; root and branch review of waste policy will benefit the environment and drive job creation, says Green Leader

Green Party Leader and Environment Minister John Gormley today launched a report underpinning a major review of waste management policy. The report commissioned by the Minister on foot of a commitment in the Programme for Government, examines all aspects of waste management policy, from prevention and minimisation to the management of residual waste.

Speaking at the launch, the Minister said: “I was determined that our review of waste management should be a root and branch one, and it is. The Eunomia report provides a blueprint for change. Changing the way we collect and treat our waste will benefit not just our environment, but also our economy. It will create jobs in new waste industries. It will enhance competitiveness of the wider economy as a whole. It will drive innovation which in turn will drive job creation.”

The Minister also announced increases to the landfill levy to drive waste from landfill in order to meet challenging EU targets, the first of which occurs in 2010. The levy will increase to €30 per tonne by 2010, to €50 in 2011 and to €75 in 2012. “Earlier this year the Government also decided to introduce an incineration levy. While the actual rate of the levy will need to relate to the rates of landfill levy which I have just announced I do envisage that the incineration levy will be in the range of €20 to €38 per tonne,” said the Minister.

Minister Gormley stated that he would shortly be bringing a new policy statement to Government with a view to its publication in the New Year. The Minister concluded: “The Eunomia report represents a launch pad for transforming how we deal with waste in Ireland. We now have the considered research which is the essential foundation for good and robust policy. We have the blueprint for legislative, institutional, regulatory and organisational change to achieve a wholly sustainable approach to waste management.”

The Programme for Government agreed in 2007 included a number of objectives relating to waste management among them a commitment to carry out an international review of waste management plans, practices and procedures and to act on the conclusions of such a review.
In February 2008, a procurement process was initiated to appoint consultants to undertake a comprehensive study on the waste sector, to underpin the overall review, and to cover a wide range of issues to help identify how best to proceed with further efforts to reduce waste levels, improve recycling rates and deliver equitable and cost-effective waste management solutions. Eunomia Research and Consulting Ltd. (and partners) were selected to undertake the study.

The report has compiled by a group of Irish and international consultants led by Dr. Dominic Hogg of Eunomia Research and Consulting. The Minister paid tribute to the work done in compiling such a comprehensive study by Dr. Hogg and his Irish and international associates.

The Green Party

Gormley opposes decision on Dublin ‘bus gate’

Colin Broderick — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:41:17 +0000

MARY MINIHAN

MINISTER FOR the Environment and Green Party leader John Gormley has described the decision to temporarily scale back the College Green “bus gate” as “a retrograde step”.

Dublin city councillors voted on Monday night to lift the ban on private cars passing through the area during peak evening hours from November 18th to January 15th.

“I think the decision to abandon the ‘bus gate’ for the time being in the evenings is really based on fear not facts,” Mr Gormley said.

“I respect councils and local government and want to see more decisions made locally, but as a Dublin TD and resident, the decision Fine Gael and Labour councillors made was a bad one . . . It’s a retrograde step.”

Mr Gormley said the bus corridor was making life easier for people who used buses or bicycles, but the move by the council “steals time from them”.

He said that the last thing that should happen in a recession was for the city to be made less accessible.

“When I hear that car parks are not doing as much business as previously, I have to say that to me that sounds like good news.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said he was “disappointed” at the decision.

“But, importantly, he would welcome the fact that a fixed date has been set for its reintroduction,” said the spokesman.

Labour councillor Dermot Lacey stressed the scaling back was temporary.

“There are 43 agencies or bodies with responsibility for traffic in Dublin.

“When Ministers Dempsey and Gormley sort that out, maybe they can come back to us,” Mr Lacey said.

Representatives from Dublin City Council and Dublin Chamber of Commerce will appear before the Oireachtas transport committee today to discuss the issue.

Source: IrishTimes