Is anyone surprised that Indaver got the go ahead today - again?

Indaver today got a decision to grant planning permission from Meath County Council to increase in size their as yet unbuilt incinerator.

We are all in Meath East totally opposed to this monstrosity which is a couple of miles away from Grange Rath, where I live. My colleague Mary Wallace bucked the party line during the last general election to oppose the incinerator. I have bucked the party line (they don't live beside it!) also. Local labour politicians have also forgotten that Labour supported incineration before they decided they were against it. The fact is that no one wants it in their back yard and I am no exception - and you can take that to the bank.

Now Indaver have, like little children, come back looking for more, more space to burn our rubbish. And they want to be the only ones allowed to do it. Not alone are they going to create an environmental catastrophe, but the likelihood is that they will charge us monopoly prices for doing so.

Yes, it will be appealed to An Bord Pleanála, but let's not hold our breadth or pretend that things will change. This will come and we will have to live with it....

Unless...

We don't use it! If we were to properly recycle our rubbish and increase our already increasing recycling levels, then could we not, through people power, stop these guys in their tracks. If we really don't want incineration, then let's not give them custom. It can be as simple as that. I know for a fact that my colleague Minister Dermot Ahern in neighbouring Louth recycles pretty much 100% of his rubbish. If he can do it, so can most of the rest of us. He won't be giving them any business.

Let's also ban the mini-burners for private individuals buring their own rubbish. What's good for the Indaver goose is good for the general public's gander...