Indaver Ireland Throw a Tantrum?

national | environment | news report Sunday April 01, 2007 10:28 by Miriam Cotton - MediaBite mcotton at mediabite dot org

Don't be fooled - this is pre-election play-acting

The Sunday Business Post reports today on what it alleges is a 'major setback to government waste policy'. If it is really true that Indaver intend to abandon plans for incinerators in Cork and Meath, in point of fact it would be the best news ever for government waste policy - a victory for the environment and for the thousands of people around the country who are implacably opposed to this unnecessary, filthy and deadly form of waste disposal. But let's not get too excited.

John Ahern, Managing Director, Indaver Ireland is quoted in the article as saying that Indaver had intended to spend E200million but that failure to implement the national waste strategy had persuaded them to head off to Britain instead. (Look out Britain, something evil your way comes.) But buried deep in the Business Post article is the following from Ahern:

'...We have done the ground work. We're not getting out and we'll be prepared to move when this market sorts itself out.'

There is a very strong probability that this threat to pull out is nothing but a pre-election ploy - a crafty way of seeming to hand a form of victory to objectors. Waste incineration was fair set to become a big local pre-election issue. But anti-incinerator campaigners in Cork and Meath who may be tempted to take their eyes off the ball would be seriously unwise to do so. There is nothing in this announcement that remotely suggests the government has reversed its policy and that it is not still doing its utmost to ease Indaver and others into operation against widespread and emphatic public objection. It's just that they are not able to do it quickly enough for Ahern and he is stamping his foot a bit. And this is a tricky time what with the election so close, and all. A final decision to approve planning permission for incineration in Cork, for example, at this stage would be electoral disaster on top of a series of other recent politically suicidal decisions in the region - e.g. reneging on the agreement to subsidise the completion of Cork Airport.