THE Taoiseach has been accused by some of his own constituents of ignoring a major controversy in Co Meath over the location of a new "superdump" for the county.
Meath County Council has narrowed its search for a 250 acre landfill site to two locations - one at Skryne, within sight of the Hill of Tara, and the other at Kentstown, some five miles from Navan, off the Dublin Slane road.
"John Bruton is the only candidate standing for election in this constituency who has refused to give any comment whatsoever on this issue," said Mr Sean Toal, who is involved in a campaign against siting the dump at Skryne, between Dunshaughlin and Tara.
"Every other candidate, including his running mates, John Farrelly and Jim Holloway, have come out against landfill, saying they believe that there are other options for dealing with waste, including reduction, reuse and recycling," he said.
"We have also got a commitment from Noel Dempsey, possibly the next Minister for the Environment, that if Fianna Fail were returned to power they would implement policies that would obviate the need for these super dumps," Mr Toal said.
Meath County Council and its engineering consultants. M.C. O'Sullivan, had identified four potential sites, the others being near Dunshaughlin and Wilkinstown. But these have been dropped in favour of Skryne and Kentstown.
Antidump campaigners in Co Meath are convinced that this news was "leaked" in advance of the publication in June of M.C. O'Sullivan's interim report, to prevent the possibility of them putting up their own candidate in the general election.
Last Saturday, almost 700 people from the Skryne and Kentstown areas staged a protest march in Dublin. They held up traffic for two hours.
The dump is a "ferociously important issue in Meath", said Mr Toal, "but John Bruton has declined to respond to invitations to attend any of the meetings organised by the various committees over the past two years. And you can't even find him these days."
Another protest meeting took take place in Skryne on Wednesday night to which all candidates were invited. "Skryne is in a prime archaeological area less than two miles from the Hill of Tara and you would be able to see it from there," Mr Toal said.
He said that neither Skryne nor Kentstown had been particularly well canvassed by any of the political parties. "Maybe they think they would be run out of the place," Mr Toal said.
