A 13-year-old boy, who was a pedestrian at the time, was struck by the vehicle. He was hit by the SUV outside the public library on the Irishtown Road, Dublin 4, at around 8.45pm. The driver drove off, leaving the scene of the crash.

“The boy was taken to Crumlin Childrens and has since been released. He suffered a broken ankle in the crash,” said Sergeant Jim Molloy.

Any person with information are asked to contact the Irishtown Gardai on 01 6669600.

View Library on Irishtown Road in a larger map

Poolbeg Chimneys

Dublin City Council manager John Tierney said tonight that the council has spent €60m on the Poolbeg incinerator project to date and could spend a further €60m before the project is even completed.

At the monthly council meeting, one councillor corrected him and that the council report provided to them stated €75m was spent so far on the project. Tierney did not respond to this.

In response to a question regarding the implications of terminating the contract, the city manager refused to disclose the potential costs, stating that a legal claim could be made against the council if the contract was terminated.

Tierney said that the decision or review period of 35 days from the break clause in the contract, as reported by RTE’s Prime Time, is being extending by 240 days.

He said city management has acted in good faith in following Government policy.

On the size of the incinerator, Tierney said that city management must look at the longer term – although he gave no data to back this up. He also claimed that the size of the plant cannot be changed without going back to tender the project and that any interest in the tender would be unlikely given the current controversy.

A report at the weekend outlined  how during his appearance at an Oireachtas committee Tierney was asked about contract changes but did not mention the break clause. Tonight the manager said that, at the time, he could not have foreseen the delay which is linked to the break clause.

Cllr Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) warned that she would take legal action if councillors were not shown the contract.

“We are in the dark. Is the suggestion that the officials can be trusted with this information and we as councillors of this city cannot be? We simply want a copy of the contract. It’s not acceptable that we be treated in this way,” she said.

Noone added: “I’ve instructed solicitors to write to the law agency. I feel so strongly about this. I believe I have a legal entitlement to see that contract. I find it completely unacceptable that we be treated in this way. I just simply demand a copy of the contract… and I will instigate proceedings if I don’t receive one.

The city manager said he hopes to make a version of the contract available to the council.

Cllr Dermot Lacey (Labour) said, “This council should nail the lie. This is not the policy of Dublin City Council. Dublin City Council had repeatedly and consistently voted against this particular waste management plan. I am furious every time I hear a statement issued in the name of Dublin City Council…This project is a policy of the bureaucrats in the Customs House unaccountable to anybody and the officials in the civic offices not elected by anybody.”

Tierney said incineration is city council policy which was agreed by councillors, but accepted that the location of the incinerator was disputed.

Most councillors spoke in opposition to the project or the current deal with many of them requesting to see the contract.

Cllr Jim O’Callaghan (Fianna Fail) said: “When I look at the broader picture I see an impending car crash. And the car crash has been caused by two drivers, the minister for the environment driving probably driving an electric car and the city manager driving his own car and I don’t mind the two of them driving into each other but I do mind when they damage the people in the back of the car, namely the Irish taxpayer and the people of Dublin.”

O’Callaghan added: “What needs to be done is that this Mexican standoff needs to end. The city manager needs to meet the minister and they need to resolve the issue. The minister needs stop being obsessed with the concerns of residents of Ringsend. And the city manager needs to have a broader view that the contract that was entered into back a number of years ago may not be suitable to Dublin now.”

Also criticising the Minister, Cllr Christy Burke (Independent) said, “It’s poor cowardice that the minister is playing this role at this stage… He’s stalling, he’s procrastinating and he’s doing everything to save his neck in the next election.”

The council made the statement after Prime Time relieved that there is a get out clause in the contract with Covanta.

In response to the city council’s statement, RTE’s environment correspondent, Paul Cunningham, said on Twitter at the weekend: “In the Times [on Saturday], the Council denied something they were never accused of. Always a good strategy when in a tight corner.”

A statement, published in The Irish Times today, the national broadcaster RTE said: “Dublin County Council is wrong. In the report by RTE’s environment correspondent Paul Cunningham, at no point was it said that the council could walk away with no cost.”

“In an interview, Labour councillor Kevin Humphreys said ‘it looks like’ the council could walk away with no cost and ‘if it is possible’ then that’s what should be done… The council should have explained that it was an interviewee, rather than Prime Time which made the statement and that the comment was qualified,” the newspaper quoted RTE as saying.

Elsewhere, The Sunday Business Post reported yesterday that a ‘source’ told them the get out clause could “no longer applied” because the foreshore licence is being worked around by the council seeking a compulsory purchase order for the foreshore lands.

The Business Post also noted that the city manager John Tierney did not mention the break clause in the contract when questioned by Oireachtas committee this year. It also said that waste levels going to landfill have decreased over 50% between 2007 and 2009, making it unlikely that there would be enough waste for the incinerator.

Meanwhile a number of councillors have now called on the release of the Poolbeg contract, ahead of the monthly council meeting this evening.

Dublin City Councillor Bill Tormey is one of the latest councillors to call for the contract on the Poolbeg incinerator to be released or shown to councillors. Cllr Kevin Humphreys (Labour) and Jim O’Callaghan (Fianna Fail) have publicly made similar requests.

Today on his website, Tormey writes, “Where in the contract is the financial penalty delineated for the party that triggered the get out clause? Where is the €200 million penalty clause for DCC exit in the contract?”

Yesterday he said: “This contract must be made available for inspection by councillors in order to discharge their public duty. At a minimum, the party group leaders on the council must see this document.”

“The level of public distrust with regard to this issue is large and the key underlying problem is the culture of secrecy in the public service in general which has been inherited from the British civil service. The country needs a culture change to improve public administration,” Tormey added.

“I support incineration but not at any price,” he said.

The fate of Dublin’s landmark Poolbeg chimneys is a step closer to being decided after the ESB shut down the attached power plant at the end of March.

The ESB said no decision has been made in relation the chimneys (pictured in the background above), adding it would be in contact with Dublin City Council.

However, it is widely seen that the closure of the oil-fired power plant will pave the way for the demolition of the twin 680ft towers which can be seen from around the city.

City councillors wanted the red-and-white striped chimneys put on the list of preserved structures last year. But planners at Dublin City Council said while the towers were “considered to be of a certain level of architectural, social and historical significance,” the two were not of “sufficient value” for inclusion on the Record of Protected Structures.

With resistance to the destruction already mounting before the landmark’s fate is sealed, opposition to any proposal to knock the towers is likely to be strong.

“They should definitely be preserved. They’re part of our DNA,” RTE presenter Joe Duffy recently told the Evening Herald.

The oil-burning power plant was nearing the end of its planned life, but the closure was also brought on by commitments the ESB made to lower its share of electricity generation to level out market competition so the company were allowed to build a new plant in Co Cork. Power will still be generated on the Poolbeg site at a gas-powered plant.