Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Apr 2002

Vol. 552 No. 1

Written Answers. - Waste Management.

Trevor Sargent

Question:

433 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the planned breakdown, by recipient, of the ?127 million of EU and Exchequer funds which he recently announced would be allocated to the creation of waste management infrastructure; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11167/02]

Trevor Sargent

Question:

439 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the projects which qualify for expenditure under the £6 million programme in the national development plan to be allocated towards waste management facilities; if he will allocate money in proportion to the weight given to each waste management option in the waste hierarchy giving by far the greatest amount to waste prevention, secondly to refuse and thirdly to recycling facilities; and if, in the face of public concern, he will rule out incineration. [11360/02]

Trevor Sargent

Question:

444 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the final amount of money to be drawn down from the national development plan for waste management facilities; the percentage of work in relation to waste management facilities which will be based on public/private partnership; and the percentage of the overall budget for waste management which is set aside for incineration technology and engineered landfill. [11409/02]

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Dempsey)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 433, 439 and 444 together.

The National Development Plan, 2000-2006, projected investment of €825 million in waste management infrastructure and anticipated that up to €570 million of this investment could be secured through public private partnership arrangements availing of private finance. It is not possible at this stage to indicate the final outturn over the life of the plan. The grants scheme announced in March 2002 is intended primarily to support the provision of "high in waste hierarchy" waste recovery infrastructure, which is provided for, or consistent with, the objectives of local authority waste management plans. Eligible recovery infrastructure would include civic amenity sites and other "bring" facilities, transfer stations and materials recovery and biological treatment facilities. Assistance will also be available to support the provision of hazardous waste landfill capacity, the need for which is identified in the national hazardous waste management plan. However, grant assistance will not be provided in respect of the capital cost of thermal treatment or non-hazardous landfill infrastructure.

The deadline for the receipt of the first round of grant applications is 31 May 2002. Accordingly, I am not in a position at this time to indicate who will receive grant assistance, or to anticipate the likely breakdown of allocations between different waste technologies and management options.