Planning board to decide on Ringaskiddy incinerator in May

A MARATHON planning process for a proposed multimillion euro waste incinerator in Ringaskiddy is expected to come to a conclusion in May.

The application lodged by Indaver Ireland is back before An Bord Pleanála for a decision.

The latest development in the long-running saga follows a High Court ruling in 2022 to send the planning application for the facility, described by Indaver as a “resource recovery centre”, back to An Bord Pleanála.

Indaver Ireland, which has been seeking to build an incinerator in Ringaskiddy since 2001, lodged its most recent application for the facility in 2016.

An Bord Pleanála green-lit the proposed development in 2018. However, local group Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (Chase), which has opposed the plans since the outset, appealed the matter to the High Court.

As previously reported by The Echo, Mr Justice David Barniville found the board’s majority five/two permission was tainted by objective bias because Conall Boland, then deputy chairman of the board, had previously worked for a firm of consulting engineers engaged by Indaver to make submissions for reviews of waste management plans advanced by Cork County Council and Cork City Council.

The judge was satisfied the work done by Mr Boland in 2004 had a “clear, rational, and cogent” connection with Indaver’s 2016 application, its third, for permission for the incinerator and also noted Mr Boland was the presenting member of the board in respect of its consideration of the planning application.

Those factors gave rise to a reasonable apprehension of objective bias, he held.

Chase had sought that the planning process start afresh, but the Supreme Court refused its application for leave to appeal the order made by the High Court to remit the planning application for the facility back to An Bord Pleanála.

Chase has contended that the facility is “unacceptable”, saying there are “safer, better ways of dealing with our waste”.

Indaver says the proposed facility would be a “sister site to Indaver’s facility in Meath”.

“It will treat household, commercial, industrial, non-hazardous, and suitable hazardous waste, and will generate approximately 18.5MW of electricity for export to the national electrical grid,” said the company.

“This will be enough to supply the power needs of approximately 30,000 households.”

Indaver has said the facility, if approved, would see an investment of around €160m, and that its development would result in 40 full-time jobs and 350 jobs during construction.

A spokesperson for An Bord Pleanála said that “318802 is the new board number for the 2016 case which has been remitted to the board from the High Court”.

The board is due to make a decision on the case by May 13.