Dublin City Council accepts Brid Smith’s motion to return authority over waste management to Council

Brid Smith’s emergency motion at Dublin City Council was passed unanimously this evening. Cllr. Smith’s motion expressed grave concern at the consequences of the recent fire at the Oxigen recycling plant in Ballymount. The Council also voted unanimously to return decision-making authority over waste management to the locally elected Councillors.

Cllr Smith said:

“Following a full report from the fire officer Dublin City Council voted unanimously to accept my motion calling on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Environmental Protection Agency to initiate an urgent review of the waste management licences around the Dublin area, with a view to withdrawing licences for certain waste management activity which may be vulnerable to combustion or cause air pollution and which are proximate to the City.

“The council also voted to call on the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to amend the Waste Management Act to return decision making authority over waste management to the locally elected Councillors.

“The consequences of the recent first at the Oxigen recycling plant in Ballymount are extremely serious for residents in the surrounding areas. Toxic smoke bellowed from the site for several days and engulfing the atmosphere around Walkinstown, Drimnagh and Crumlin.  The consequences of this pollution cannot only be measured in the short term. This area of West Dublin has a proliferation of waste management sites which are located dangerously close to densely populated areas. We can no longer tolerate this. It is not lost on local people that almost all of these companies are located in working class areas and not in the leafy suburbs of Castleknock or Dublin 4.”