PRESS RELEASE - October 19, 2004

CHAIRPERSON VOTED IN FOR ANOTHER TERM
Says “Confidence In Incinerator Seriously Eroded Over Past Three Years”
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At the recent Annual General Meeting of Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment (CHASE) members unanimously re-elected Mary O’Leary to serve a second term as Chairperson of the organization.

The AGM was held in Ringaskiddy Community Hall on Thursday 14 October. In her address Mary O’Leary congratulated members on their commitment, dedication and determination and said:

“Much progress had been made over the course of this campaign. It is important to reinforce that we, the community, have the right and the duty to question the project. Our confidence in this project has been seriously eroded during the past three years. We have seen An Bord Pleanala grant planning permission to project despite the fact that

• The ABP Oral Hearing Inspector said it was contrary to national policy, contrary to Cork County Council policy and a risk to public safety
• Indaver have no experience of running this type of incinerator
• The Indaver incinerator in Flanders has had serious emissions breaches of over 1800 times above dioxin limits.*
• Even Indaver admits that the plant proposed for Cork is below the standard recommended by the Basle Convention for disposing of solid hazardous waste.**
• None of the on-site management team will have previous experience in running any incinerator. Any experienced personnel will be based in their Flanders Plant, and the Cork plant will be managed from Belgium!

Ms O'Leary continued to say “The recent reshuffle within Indaver, arising from the controversial departure of Laura Burke to the EPA, leaves even less experienced staff at the helm of high risk projects and is an insult to the people of Ireland.

Incineration is unsafe and unnecessary, and unacceptable to communities because there are better choices available. We must urge our authorities to recognize that we do have a choice of how to manage waste. We must be clever and utilize our resourses to the benefit our economy, rather than wasting them by burning them in incinerators and putting local populations at potential risk.”

CHASE was founded in September 2001 by communities from across Cork Co Cork, and now represents over 30,000 people who are opposed to the building of a Hazardous Waste Incinerator at Ringaskiddy, Co Cork.

* in August 2002 and again in January 2003 (10 times over dioxin limits)
**From ABP Oral Hearing

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For further information contact:
Linda FitzPatrick, CHASE PRO Tel: 021 4374506 Mobile: 087 7410849
Mary O’Leary, Chairperson, CHASE Tel: 021 4811952 Mobile: 086 8177737