John Gormley

Green Party Chairman, John Gormley TD has described an anti-incinerator leaflet distributed by Justice Minister Michael McDowell, in Dublin South East as “disingenuous nonsense”.

Speaking after reviewing the leaflet Deputy Gormley said: “Today I discussed the leaflet with my constituency colleague, Ruairi Quinn TD. We are both agreed that Michael McDowell cannot be allowed to get away with this propaganda. Unlike Michael McDowell, we both live in the area affected and we’ll have to suffer the consequences of hundreds of extra trucks passing by our front doors.

“In his leaflet Michael McDowell states that the proposed incinerator for the Poolbeg peninsula does not comply with the policies set out in the programme for Government. The obvious question then is why the Government, of which Michael McDowell is a part, gave approval for a public private partnership for this mass burn incinerator on the Poolbeg peninsula? There would appear to be a major gap between what is set out in the programme for Government and what the Government is actually doing. Why has the Minister not cried halt?”

Deputy Gormley described the leaflet as hypocritical as it calls on others not to make a political football of the incinerator issue.

“This is the man who made the incinerator a central plank of his election campaign and attacked other parties, particularly the Green Party, for not having the capacity to deal with this issue. This was the man that would go into Government with Fianna Fáil and put manners on them. It now seems as if he is a passive by-stander in this Fianna Fáil led Government.

“In the leaflet Michael McDowell says ‘I will use my ministerial position to get our message across to my colleagues in Government.’ It appears that the Minister for Environment Dick Roche has not been listening very well or perhaps Minister McDowell has not been communicating very clearly.”

Deputy Gormley challenged Minister McDowell to debate the issue openly with him on radio or TV saying, “Let the people hear the truth on the incinerator!

“It is time to stop this disingenuous nonsense. Minister McDowell you are in Government. Do something,” he concluded.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 8th, 2006 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Incineration, Irishtown, Press releases, Ringsend, Sandymount. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.