Bernard Allen
Question:80 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government his position on the Health Research Board's report, Health and Environmental Effects of Landfilling and Incineration of Waste. [8814/03]
Priority Questions. - Waste Disposal.
The report published by the Health Research Board is a lengthy and detailed document which, alongside the related inventory of dioxin emissions to the Irish environment that was published by the EPA in late December 2002, is receiving careful consideration, both within my Department and the EPA. In due course, having consulted the agency, the Department of Health and Children and other bodies that may be concerned, I will make a fuller statement in response to the HRB report and its findings. In the meantime, the rigorous environmental licensing system implemented by the EPA in respect of all significant waste facilities will continue to ensure that such activities do not present a significant risk to public health or the environment.
A key recommendation of the report is that further research using reliable estimates of exposure over long periods is required to determine whether living near incinerators is injurious to health. In view of this, will the Minister indicate that he will terminate all plans to develop incineration until this study is completed? It is ironic that when the Minister for Health and Children is proposing to ban smoking in public places, the Minister appears to be gung-ho to develop a programme of incineration, despite the warning of the Health Research Board.
It might be helpful if everybody read the report and stopped using selected recommendations from it.
I have read the report in its entirety.
The recommendation to which the Deputy refers has been completely misinterpreted. Risk assessment in the context of the HRB recommendation does not mean the site- specific risk assessment routinely undertaken by the EPA before it grants a waste licence to a proposed waste facility. Rather, the report clearly refers to a perceived need for health information systems to support routine and long-term monitoring of the health of people living near waste facilities, so that over time, any public health impact from such facilities can be identified and evaluated. These kinds of systems have only been recently developed in all countries and we will welcome them when they occur.
I have made consistent attempts to make the point, which I hope the Deputy supports, that in terms of the overall development of a waste integrated management system here, there are four aspects to the internationally respected waste hierarchy. One of these is thermal treatment incineration. When politicians talk to people on this aspect they should put in context that the total impact of the combined hazardous waste incinerators in the country contribute less than 1% of the dioxins that currently go into the environment. When the proposed new municipal waste facilities are in place, the total combined of all these facilities in terms of dioxin emissions will be approximately 1.85%. There is a responsibility on us all to deal with the facts. We should stop scaring people.
At present, there is uncontrolled combustion throughout the country where people are burning waste in their back gardens, farmyards or wherever. The vast majority of dioxins are emitted into the Irish atmosphere from such sources. I propose that we move to the use of managed, state-of-the-art and controlled facilities which will allow everybody to know what is happening.
In raising this question, I did not seek a lecture from the Minister. I have read the report. It clearly recommends that further studies need to be undertaken on the health implications of incinerators.
Not site-specific.
The Minister should be more determined in dealing with waste minimisation, recycling and waste separation before he embarks on waste incineration, which is expensive. Does he agree that if waste incineration is introduced before the other programmes are fully implemented it will be self-defeating? Does he also agree that a policy of incineration will require huge resources and energy to justify the presence of incinerators in regions?
The Deputy is not listening to me. We are talking about two different things. The Deputy has transposed a part of the HRB report to mean something it does not mean. I have explained what it means.
The other issue in the report about which I am pleased is that it clearly draws a distinction between the assessments and the research done which was based on old landfills and old types of incinerators. I am delighted to be able to say that we will not have these in this country. Since the EU directives of 1999 and 2000 on landfill and incineration have come into being, the bar has been set at the highest level. Although we have a massive problem we are fortunate in coming to deal with this issue now because technology has advanced so much in the past few years that the qualitative approach we can guarantee to the people in putting in these facilities will use cutting edge technology which was not available in many of the assessments in the HRB report. The report's authors said themselves that the report was on old landfills and incinerators.
To what recent health studies is the Minister referring in regard to the most modern of incinerators? What health studies can he quote which prove that incineration of waste is safe both health-wise and environmentally? Can he produce the titles of the reports here?
Nothing in life is risk-free. What I am trying to do is to explain to people in this country the huge damage we are doing. If people are concerned—
The Minister is lecturing me for not reading a report yet he has not named one.
I cited the EPA report of 2000 in my reply to the Deputy.
I asked about health studies.
I said that the HRB report will overlap with and fill in on that report also.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle
Order please. I ask the Minister to proceed to Question No. 81.
We are making substantial progress. I agree with the Deputy that the emphasis must be on waste minimisation and recycling. That is where State funding will largely be put in place and I will make some further announcements in that regard shortly.