Bord Pleanala Appeal
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Note added on July 22nd 2004 The references in the e-mail below to "Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2002" are the result of the following sentence in a letter dated December 19th 2003 from Deputy Padraic McCormac TD: "I think this validity was given to him in the Waste Management Amendment Act 2002." An Internet search carried out today suggests that there is no Waste Management Amendment Act 2002. Consequently, it is thought that Mr McCormac may have meant to write "Waste Management Amendment Act 2001". Assuming that is the case, all occurrences of the year "2002" in the e-mail below should be read as "2001". |
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Celtic Waste landfill-site at Kilconnell, County Galway, Ireland
Bord Pleanala references:
PL 07.205181 P.A.Reg.Ref: 02/3811
February 21st 2004
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From:
William Finnerty
Cc:
Margot Wallstrom (European Union Environment Commissioner) ;
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern ;
Minister for Justice (Mr. Michael McDowell) ;
Martin Cullen T.D. (Republic of Ireland Minister for the Environment
and Local Government)
;
Deputy Trevor Sargent T.D. (Republic of Ireland Leader of The Green
Party) ;
CelticParty(Yahoo) ;
New Inn
Anti-Dump Chairman (Vincent Costello) ;
Kilconnell Anti-Dump Group Secretary (Annette Gilchrist) ;
Kilconnell Anti-Dump Internet Group ;
New Inn AntiDump Internet Group ;
Commission of the European Communities (Attn. Secretary-General) ;
EU Chairman of the Committee on Petitions (Mr Nino Gemelli) ;
Mr Gearoid Geraghty (Lawyer, Fair Murtagh, Ballinasloe) ;
Self (Yahoo) ;
Self (Eircom) ;
Self (Hotmail)
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 12:03 PM
Subject: Board Pleanala Appeal (for the attention of Ms
Catherine Nolan)
=======================
For attention of:
Ms Catherine Nolan
Board Pleanala
64 Marlborough Street
Dublin 1.
=======================
Your reference: PL 07 205181
(Celtic Waste landfill site at Kilconnell, County Galway).
Dear Ms Nolan,
Following our telephone conversation of last
Thursday, I would like to object (as an observer) to the Celtic Waste
plan for Kilconnell.
Later today I will send a signed copy of
this e-mail to you through the registered post, together with a cheque
for €50 to cover the fee you mentioned.
+++++++++++++++++++++
I wish to object to the proposed Celtic
Waste landfill site at Kilconnell on the following grounds:
1)
Constitutionality
of Waste Management Act 2002
As I mentioned to four local politicians
at the end of an Anti-Dump Meeting in Kilconnell on December 8th 2003,
I have long believed that
Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2002 is in breach
of Article 28A of the written Constitution of the Republic of
Ireland. This is because of the fact that it completely
removes all power from the democratically elected local government
politicians regarding important local community matters connected
with the location of huge rubbish dumps (e.g. those now planned for
Kilconnell and New Inn), and instead places it entirely in the hands
of UNELECTED County Council managers.
The following day (i.e. December 9th 2003)
I sent backup letters through the registered post to the four
politicians concerned (Deputy Callanan T.D., Deputy
Connaughton T.D., Deputy McHugh T.D., and Counsellor Michael Mullins),
and asked them, and their political colleagues, to have the
constitutionality of Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2002
reviewed. To date, I have not received any reply at all from any of
the four people in question.
Counsellor Michael Mullins told me (twice)
on December 8th 2003 that he would write to President Mary
McAleese about the matter: which, as President McAleese is
the guardian of our Constitution, seemed very appropriate to me. For
reasons unknown to me, and although she could easily have checked the
matter with the Supreme Court (at no expense to herself) I believe, it
appears to be the case that President McAleese refused to do so: even
though an article in the Irish Times Newspaper dated
July 11th 2001 clearly states: "An appeal was
made in the Dail yesterday to the President, Mrs Mary McAleese, to
refer the controversial Waste Management Bill to the Supreme Court.
Nora Owen (FG, Dublin North) urged the President, " the third element
of the Oireachtas", to ask the Supreme Court to test the
constitutionality of the Bill". At an earlier period in
time, Ms Nora Owen was (I understand) Minister for Justice in the
Republic of Ireland.
I also e-mailed all of the Galway TDs
regarding this matter on December 17th 2003. In response, I received
an e-mail from Minister Eamon O'Cuiv T.D. dated
December 23rd 2003 stating that as Article 28A (and the closely
related Aarhus Convention Agreement) "comes under the
remit" of Minister for Justice Michael McDowell T.D.,
he had forwarded my e-mail to him for "direct reply" to me. To date,
I have heard nothing at all from Minister McDowell.
As I trust Board Pleanala
will understand, the fact that the politicians concerned appear unable
to answer me suggests that there really is something VERY
seriously wrong regarding the constitutionality of Waste Management
(Amendment) Act 2002.
Further details (including copies of the
registered letter receipts to the 4 politicians referred to above) can
be seen at Internet page location:
http://www.finnachta.com/Kilconnell8Dec2003.htm#LocalPoliticians
Please note that the problem with Article
28A of the Constitution has also been pointed out to the
European Parliament (just over 2 years ago). This can be
seen at:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kellybrendan/petition1/feb-1-2002.htm
2) Serious bribery allegation
not being investigated
For a very considerable time now, there are
allegations that (in the presence of TWO witnesses) the
Chairman of the Kilconnell Anti-Dump Group was offered a bribe
of €50,000 to help Celtic Waste implement their plans for their
landfill site in Kilconnell. Though this matter has been raised in the
Dail by Deputy Trevor Sargent T.D. (Leader of the Green Party),
no attempt whatsoever (that I know of) has been made to investigate it.
I have also sent letters through the
registered post to Prime Minister Ahern T.D. and
Environment Minister Cullen T.D. on July 11th 2003
requesting that this bribery matter be investigated. To date, I have
not received any reply from either Minister Ahern or Minister Cullen.
Further information, including copies of the
registered letter receipts to Prime Minister Ahern and Minister Cullen,
and an Internet link to the Deputy Sargent / Minister Cullen
Dail debate can be found at the following Internet page
location:
http://www.finnachta.com/CorruptionInvestigationRequest.htm#Bribery
As I trust Bord Pleanala will understand,
the fact that this bribery matter is not being investigated appears
totally irresponsible to me; and, among other things, it leaves me
feeling that I must be living in a "banana republic" of some kind.
3) Woodlawn House
During the summer of 2001 a group of local
people from around the Woodlawn area of east County Galway held meetings
(often informal) for the purpose of trying to find ways of co-operating
with anybody who might be interested in restoring Woodlawn House
- which has a very long, and a very interesting history that is closely
connected with the Lord Ashtown title. The Lord Ashtown
title is held by the Trench Family - who, apart from being huge
landowners in Ireland at one time, are also closely associated with what
many now regard as the most decisive battle in recorded Irish history:
The Battle of Aughrim (1691).
Though the Friends Of Woodlawn House
Group were doing very well with their efforts to have the
property restored, in terms of attracting interest from property
developers, they were forced to shelve their plans when word got out
that Celtic Waste - with the help and support of Galway County
Council please note - were planning to install
a huge rubbish dump just a mile or so from the property. Further information
(including photographs of the main Woodlawn House building) can be found
at:
It may also be worth mentioning that
Woodlawn House is situated just 100 yards or so from the Esker
Riada - the "Great Road" ( "An Sli Mor") of ancient Ireland,
and by far the most important of the "5 great roads" frequently
referred to in the ancient histories of Ireland. Not surprisingly, the
whole area close by is completely festooned with ancient monuments of
many different kinds, from many different periods of history. For
example, the world famous Turoe Stone is just about 4
miles to the west, and Kilconnell Friary is just a mile
or two to the east. For further information on these three important
heritage sites, please see:
Kilconnell Friary:
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~williamfinnerty/Kilconnell_Meeting/Kilconnell_Friary_.htm
Please note also that if the Celtic Waste
plan goes ahead, one side of the proposed rubbish dump will come very
close to the Esker Riada ridge.
4) Rejected
recycling proposal
Though few (if any) local people knew
anything much about it until the first few weeks in January of this
year, it appears that Galway County Council rejected (around July 2002)
what seems to be an excellent plan for dealing with the County's waste.
This proposal, which depended heavily on recycling, was made by a
consortium of three companies lead by local businessman Mr.
Tommy Roche (Roche Engineering Limited); and,
it completely avoided the need for the two things most people wish to
avoid: superdumps and incinerators.
Detailed information on this particular
proposal can now be found at:
I had a lengthy discussion a few months ago
with Mr Roche about this matter. Assuming I understood him correctly,
the offer to Galway County Council set out at the above Internet address
STILL stands. I would ask Bord Pleanala to please take very careful
note of this point. I would also ask them to note that nobody I know
(including Mr Roche) can come up with any GOOD reason why Galway County
Council rejected this offer.
Though I can only guess at a reason for
Galway County Council rejecting this "people and environment friendly"
plan, I tend to think that it must be something to do with the fact that
recycling is labour intensive (by comparison to throwing rubbish of all
kinds into a landfill site in an "any-old-way-will-do" manner), and that
the big financial profits associated with the Celtic Waste type of
superdump landfill sites would be badly affected. (Though this is
something Bord Pleanala might wish to verify for themselves, local
reports in widespread circulation suggest that superdump operators such
as Celtic Waste can make profits in the region of EUROS 500,000
per day from sites such as that proposed for Kilconnell - and all at the
expense of the local communities of course.)
5)
Shortcomings in
the Republic of Ireland legislation
With due regard for the contents of section
4) above, I feel it is very inappropriate for the Republic of Ireland
Government to be now RUSHING headlong ahead (in the way they seem to be)
with such things as superdump projects when the EU Commission
are clearly unhappy about what they see as "shortcomings in the
Irish legislation governing EIAs (Environment Impact Assessments)."
Another of the several problems bothering
the EU Commission at present involves the way citizens are charged for
submitting information of the kind I am submitting in this letter:
which, when lost earnings are taken into account over the past five
years or so, has already cost me hundreds of thousands of Euros
to compile in forms such as these presented in this e-mail (and
in several others contained in the two web sites listed at the end of
this letter).
The following piece of text comes from the
EU web page address provided just below: "The Commission has decided to
make two referrals to the Court of Justice with regard to
Ireland. One relates to Irish legislation requiring citizens to
pay a fee of €20.00 (and €45.00 on appeal) if they want their opinions
taken into consideration when an EIA is carried out. The cumulative
amount can represent fifty percent of the weekly income of those on
social security. In the Commission's view, charging citizens for
submitting information makes it less likely that they will contribute to
the environmental decision-making process and so works against the
interests of the Directive. Ireland has not yet
indicated any intention of withdrawing this fee-based system."
The full text of the July 22nd 2003 EU Press
Release can be seen at:
http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/03/1070|0|RAPID&lg=EN&display
+++++++++++++++++++++
For your convenience, and for future reference purposes, you may wish
to note that I intend to place a copy of the text of this e-mail at
the following Internet address (sometime within the coming day or so):
Yours sincerely,
Mr William Finnerty
St Albans
New Inn
Ballinasloe
County Galway
ENCLOSED (with printed copy
of this e-mail letter):
Bank of Ireland cheque for €50 made out to Bord Pleanala. |
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