Ireland-The Green Party sells out on incineration

The relative powerless of the Green Party in Government is illustrated by its capitulation on co-location and on incineration.

The following is taken from the Green Party policy on waste:

“In Government the Green Party will place a moratorium on the incineration of waste”.

Yet the Greens agreed a Programme for Government with FF, which did not preclude incineration.

It is risible to listen to John Gormley articulating an anti incineration policy. He is a member of a Government, which has incineration as one of the key planks of its environmental policy. John Gormley realises quite well that the era of incineration is nigh thanks to the failure of his party in its negotiations with FF. In October he said that Ireland required no more than two incinerators to deal with waste, which cannot be recycled or processed, rather than the eight that are currently planned.

An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for the incinerator at Poolbeg in Dublin. If the Green Party had insisted on the ditching of incineration - as a key precondition of its participation in government -residents of Dublin SE would not face an uncertain future. The Green Party has dispensed with many of its core principles to secure seats at the cabinet table. It has lost its way.