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Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government
(Mr. Roche):
The Government's waste management strategy
has delivered demonstrable and successful results, including the
achievement of domestic and EU targets well ahead of schedule. This
strategy, as formulated in successive policy documents, has been framed
against the background of EU objectives to move to specified recovery
rates for various waste streams and to divert biodegradable waste from
landfill. All the most environmentally advanced States in the EU use
waste to produce energy as part of their waste strategies and in this
regard the proximity principle suggests that these facilities should be
located close to major urban areas where the waste is generated.
Our municipal recycling rate has increased nationally from just 9% in
1998 to 35% by 2005, reaching a national target set for 2013. In
relation to specific waste streams, we have worked successfully with
industry through a range of Producer Responsibility Initiatives. Our
recycling of packaging waste rose from 15% in 1998 to 60% in 2005,
comfortably exceeding the 50% EU target set for 2005 and attaining the
EU 2011 target. 87% of construction and demolition waste was recycled in
2005, exceeding the national 2013 target of 85%. Ireland was one of the
few Member States to implement the WEEE Directive on time in 2005, and
in the first year of operation we greatly exceeded the collection target
set by the EU for 2008.
The Government is determined to drive forward and build on these
recycling achievements, supported by appropriate infrastructure to deal
with waste that cannot be prevented or recycled. Waste-to-energy
treatment can make an environmentally valuable contribution in this
context, and given EU requirements on diversion of waste from landfill.
Against this background, the Dublin waste to energy plant is being
procured as a public private partnership by Dublin City Council acting
on behalf of the four Dublin local authorities, and within the framework
of the statutory regional waste management plan.
Dublin City Council has informed my Department that the selected service
provider for the project has been seeking significant changes in the
financial and commercial terms originally agreed. This matter is I
understand the subject of continuing negotiations between the Council
and the prospective service provider, and I am not in a position to
comment further on it at this stage. The applications for planning
permission to An Bord Pleanala, and for a waste licence to the EPA, are
sponsored by Dublin City Council, not the service provider, and are
being maintained. |
