Letter from Gordon Reid in response to Irish Examiner Editorial of October 26.
On reading your editorial (“Unacceptable — Incinerator decision delayed”, Irish Examiner, October 26), I was overcome with remorse. I am one of those who caused the delay to which you refer. I owe an apology.
Along with 112 others from the community around Cork Harbour, I gave evidence to the 17-day An Bord Pleanála oral hearing on the Indaver proposal. We gave 113 different, but related, reasons why the incinerator proposal should be rejected.
We questioned the Indaver witnesses in detail and exposed the many fatal deficiencies in their proposal. We gave the An Bord Pleanála inspector a mountain of evidence to sift through, in compiling his report, and a multitude of issues that had to be explored and judged, so that the final report to the board would represent fairly the evidence of the hearing.
I’m not surprised this task has taken the inspector five months, so far, and that the report has not yet gone before the board.
I don’t think it is fair to conclude that “these delays … hardly suggest an efficient planning culture”. The inspector has a mammoth task before him, and I hope, and trust, that the time it has taken reflects a careful and thorough approach to the work.
I hope that these months of scrutiny will lead the inspector to the recommendation that the evidence demands an emphatic refusal of permission, and that this recommendation will be upheld by the board. We have waited 15 years to get rid of Indaver, and we can wait a little longer. What matters is not that the decision is made quickly, but that it is done right.
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