The Government and local authorities are being urged to respond after in was revealed that the operators of the Poolbeg incinerator, Dublin Waste to Energy (Holdings), have engaged in a profit-reducing arrangement with a subsidiary in Luxembourg.

The arrangement will see Luxembourg-based Dublin First WTE enter into a stakeholder loan agreement of €75 million with Dublin Waste to Energy (Holdings), with interest rates of 13.5% percent per annum being charged. This means that profits made in Ireland by Dublin Waste to Energy (Holdings) will be reduced by the cost of servicing the debt to the Luxembourg company, with no similar tax liability due in Luxembourg. Dublin Waste to Energy (Holdings) is owned by US based energy giant Covanta.

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Leader of the Green Party, Eamon Ryan, said: "The Government and the City Council must come clean and reveal whether they were aware of the tax avoidance measure that Covanta has put in place when they signed contracts for the new incinerator.

"As fellow equity partners in the deal they would surely know the funding arrangements that were being put in place before the contracts were signed. For the Government to sign off and be party to such a blatantly unfair tax avoidance measure would be disgraceful."

(CD/MH)