01/04/2010

Letters Reveal Opposing Positions Over Poolbeg

Letters released today have revealed completely opposed positions between the Environment Minister John Gormley and Dublin City Manager John Tierney over the highly controversial incinerator at Poolbeg.

Some eleven letters relating to the Poolbeg incinerator detailed the Minister and Dublin City Manager where at loggerheads over the contract for the incinerator after Minister Gormley expressed concerns in relation to negative financial implications arising from a clause in the incinerator's contract that guaranteed the operators would get paid if the Council failed to deliver a specified amount of waste.

However, Mr Tierney warned Mr Gormley that interference in the incinerator contract would have potentially devastating consequences on the capital's four local authorities.

The Minister responded saying the Council might not secure enough waste and the contract could allow price fixing - something now being investigated by the Competition Authority.

Mr Tierney hit back at the Minister's waste review saying it contained fundamental flaws and denied claims by the Gormley that the Council had been blasé, foolhardy or unwise.

The correspondence took place over the past two years.

(DW/GK)

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