Decision on Indaver is postponed until March

THE Green Party in Cork has said it is ‘deeply concerned’ that An Bord Pleanála has once again postponed the decision date for the Indaver Ireland waste incinerator in Ringaskiddy.

The decision is now set for March 22nd. The date for a decision had originally been reported as being January 24th, but last week An Bord Pleanála said it was once again postponing a decision.

Catriona Reid, a representative of the Green Party in Cork, who attended the hearing, said: ‘This is the fourth time we’ve heard the board have postponed their decision. The community have been waiting for this since last summer. Ultimately this isn’t fair on them and, as Chase (Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment) have said many times, it seems that rules only apply to the community and not to the board and not to Indaver.’

Last month, Catriona was awarded with a Cork Environmental Forum individual award for her work on behalf of the Cork Harbour Community community during the incinerator oral hearing.

Meanwhile, Chase chairperson Mary O’Leary said that while it is a complex case, the group still struggles to understand the repeated postponement of a decision.

‘Serious irregularities in dioxin figures in Indaver’s application were exposed on the final day, which led to hearing Inspector Derek Daly saying it brought “the veracity of documentation in question”,’ she pointed out. 

She pointed out that the current application drew objections from the Department of Defence, PDForra, all local TDs including Fianna Fáil party Leader Micheal Martin and Minister Simon Coveney (then Minister for Defence), as well as from staff at the National Maritime College of Ireland (NMCI), across the road from the proposed site.

Ringaskiddy & District Residents Association also expressed concern at the latest delay in a decision. ‘Only this week, the Association had requested a short extension to a closing date for submissions to be made on yet another major, complex application lodged in the area. This request was refused without any consideration by An Bord Pleanála, yet three days later, they have freely allowed themselves a third extension over seven months to make a decision on a 17-day oral hearing.’