REPRESENTATIVES OF private waste companies are to mount a new legal challenge against the Poolbeg incinerator and Dublin City Council’s position in the waste collection market.
The Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA) said it is preparing to lodge complaints with the European Commission in relation to elements of the contract between the council and Covanta, the developers of the 600,000 tonne incinerator.
The association is also attempting to end the council’s dominance in the waste collection market in Dublin.
It is to ask the commission to rule whether it is a conflict of interest for the council to regulate the waste market, which it does through the issuing of collection permits, as well as conducting its own waste collection service.
The move follows the rejection last month by the Competition Authority of a number of complaints made by the IWMA. The authority found there was no breach of Irish competition law in the contract for the incinerator.
IWMA spokesman Brendan Keane said he had met the authority in recent days; it had advised that certain complaints were beyond its remit.
“The IWMA is now finalising a comprehensive legal challenge against the incinerator for lodging with the European Commission,” Mr Keane said.
He also claimed that the Competition Authority had not closed its case on the incinerator and that while it had advised that some aspects of the complaint would be more properly dealt with by the commission, it was continuing to investigate contractual issues in relation to the Poolbeg deal.
The IWMA last December lodged a complaint with the commission that the incinerator contract was in breach of state aid rules. The commission has yet to make a ruling on this complaint.
Asked about the latest move, Dublin City Council said last night that it “operates within the framework of Irish waste management legislation”.
