Cork city and county councillors come together to oppose incinerator

Cork city and county councillors have come together to oppose a planned incinerator development in Ringaskiddy, as public representatives have urged Fáilte Ireland to put in a submission of their own.

Belgian firm Indaver has lodged new documents with An Coimisiún Pleanála, looking to advance the project which it first sought approval for in 2016.

Cork County Council’s CEO agreed to make a submission opposing the development on behalf of the council after Sinn Féin’s Eoghan Fahy and Fianna Fáil’s Patrick Donovan called for a suspension of standing orders to discuss the plans at a recent council meeting.

Elected members of Cork City Council have now said in a letter to the planning board that they endorse the county council’s submission.

Shared

Councillors explained that Cork Harbour is a “shared and unifying resource” between the local authorities, and “there is no boundary between Cork City Council and Cork County Council’s functional areas with respect to air pollution”.

They said: “Developments allowed within the county area that negatively impact air quality and the health of residents there have the potential to equally negatively impact air quality and the health of residents in the city area, and vice versa.”

The letter comes on foot of a motion by Green Party councillors Dan Boyle, Oliver Moran, and Honore Kamegni, and is signed by the three Labour councillors Peter Horgan, Ciara O’Connor, John Maher, Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gould and Joe Lynch, Social Democrats’ Niamh O’Connor, and People Before Profit-Solidarity’s Brian McCarthy.

It has also been signed by Lord Mayor and Fianna Fáil councillor Fergal Dennehy, his party colleague Terry Coleman, Fine Gael’s Gary O’Brien, Shane O’Callaghan, and Damian Boylan, and Independent councillors Albert Deasy and Paudie Dineen.

Objection

Social Democrats TD Liam Quaide has called for Fáilte Ireland to also put in an objection with regard to the potential impact of the development on tourism. The body told Mr Quaide that it “will be making a submission to An Coimisiún Pleanála in which it will request that the potential for impacts on the tourism, recreation, and amenity value of Cork Harbour be given due consideration”.

The Cork East TD said in response: “An Coimisiún Pleanála does not possess equivalent expertise in tourism. Your direct and unambiguous professional opinion on the likely negative impact of this development is therefore essential to ensure that tourism implications are fully and properly represented in the assessment. The proposed facility would introduce a large, discordant, and highly visible industrial structure at a pivotal, centrally located harbourside site, just 800m from Spike Island and visible from Cobh, Fort Camden, and every point within the harbour basin.”

Tourism

Fine Gael councillor Jack White told The Echo that he has also written to the tourism body, adding: “From the beginning of this latest chapter on our fight against the incinerator, I have been focusing on the massive tourism asset that is Cork Harbour, and trying to draw attention to the huge investment Fáilte Ireland, Cork County Council, Cork City Council, and others have put into developing tourism. It has to be defended.

The binary situation here is that we either have a serious tourism offering, or we have an incinerator. The incinerator would destroy the tourism potential in the harbour.”