The European Commission has now finalised its examination of the socio-economic cost benefit analysis of the waste to energy project. The Commission cannot agree to European Regional Development Fund support for this project because in its view the predictable revenue stream and the high degree of certainty about the capital cost of the project would effectively render the European Regional Development Fund grant deadweight money; and the construction of the station at this juncture would be at variance with the indicative time horizon for thermal conversion of waste outlined in the draft waste management strategy for the Dublin region.
The Economic Infrastructure Operational Programme Monitoring Committee considered the matter at its meeting of 30 March 1998. It was the committee's view, subject to a reserved judgment by the Department of Finance and the European Commission, that the 9.3MECU aid earmarked for the project be retained within the economic infrastructure operational programme and, if agreed by the CSF monitoring committee, that in principle the aid be allocated between the rural networks and broadband technology measures of the operational programme.