No rift with Greens on incinerators, says Ahern
There is no conflict between the Fianna Fáil and coalition partners the Green Party on incineration policy, the Taoiseach said today.
Greens leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley said only two burning facilities are needed ,but the Taoiseach told the Dáil four were currently being planned.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the situation was quite confusing and called for clarification on the issue.
He added: "What is required from Government is clarity on its policy and position."
Mr Ahern said that he shared Mr Gormley's view that Ireland needs to embrace modern technology systems like those being used in the Nordic countries.
He added: "There are four major applications for incinerators in the planning process. Based on Mr Gormley's examination of new technologies, perhaps we will not need eight incinerators and four was the number mentioned in a number of reports.
"In Mr Gormley's view, with the most modern technology we would not need the number of incinerators that had been envisaged."
Mr Gormley said earlier this month that Ireland requires no more than two incinerators to deal with waste which cannot be recycled or processed.
Mr Kenny asked: "Was the minister just spoofing when he stated the country needs no more than two incinerators instead of eight?"
The Taoiseach replied that the number of incinerators required depends on the capacity of each.
"Whether it six, eight or later four, it depends on the capacity," he explained.
Mr Kenny replied: "That is a load of rubbish."
Mr Ahern reiterated that planning experts should take account of the most modern technology.
"We want to move away from landfill. We should take account of the most modern technology available and as we have not started to build the incinerators, why should we use technology that is six or seven years out of date?"
