RTE - 14 February 2005

Hearing on licence for Cork incinerator

The board of directors of the Environmental Protection Agency has rejected calls to attend a hearing in Cork into the granting of a licence for the country's first commercial toxic waste incinerator.

The EPA has angered objectors to the project by granting a draft licence to Indaver Ireland.

The objectors say they want the directors to listen to their complaints and to answer their questions directly.

Indaver Ireland is planning to invest €93 million in the development of two incinerators at Ringaskiddy. One will be for toxic waste, and the other for municipal waste.

The company has already secured planning permission from An Bord Pleanála. The hearing by the EPA is part of the process to decide if Indaver Ireland should be granted an operating licence, which it also needs.

The project is highly contentious, and the company's proposals have met with massive local opposition. But today the anger of the objecting groups was focused on the EPA rather than on Indaver Ireland.

Indaver Ireland is to make a submission to the EPA hearing, and the company insists it can stand over the safety of the project.