ONE of the most vocal opponents of the controversial Poolbeg incinerator project is the part-owner of a company that is facing fines of up to €12.7m for breach of waste-management laws.

Brendan Keane, who is spokesman for the Irish Waste Management Association (IWMA), has been an fervent critic of the incinerator and claimed that the construction of the plant would threaten 1,000 jobs in waste-management facilities if it went ahead. However, Keane's company Cara Environmental is facing multi-million euro fines after it pleaded guilty to waste offences.

Leading pharmaceutical company Wyeth Medica Ireland, and one if its contractors, Cara Environmental, pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching environmental protection laws in 2000 and 2001 in Dublin Criminal Court last month. The charges relate to the illegal shipment of waste water from Wyeth's plant in Newbridge, Co Kildare, by Cara to a Belgian company, Bioland.

The waste water, containing the waste product from a contraceptive drug, was processed into treacle that was used in pig feed. After Dutch farmers discovered in 2002 that their pigs were having fertility problems, it caused a major food scare.

Reports from last month's court case outlined that "Wyeth pleaded guilty to shipping waste out of the state without the required shipment certificate, engaging an agent who mixed hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste; and two charges of failing to comply with a condition of a pollution control licence. The maximum penalty for each offence is €12.7m."

Cara pleaded guilty to four separate counts of shipping waste without a certificate on dates in 2000 and 2001.

During the court hearing, the prosecution's senior counsel, Tom O'Connell, said that while Wyeth had co-operated with the garda investigation, Cara had generally declined to comment when interviewed by gardaí, citing legal advice.

The last hearing of the case was held on 28 July when Judge Patricia Ryan adjourned sentencing to 18 October.

According to accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office, Keane is a director and secretary of Cara Environmental Technology Limited. The company's annual returns show that he owns one third of the company.

The IWMA, of which Keane is spokesman, is mounting a legal challenge against the Poolbeg incinerator and Dublin City Council's position in the waste collection market.

The body, which represents private waste management companies, is preparing to lodge complaints with the European Commission in relation to parts of the contract between the council and Covanta, the US firm which is developing the 600,000 tonne incinerator.

The IWMA lodged another complaint, claiming that the contract was in breach of state aid rules, with the European Commission last December and the commission has yet to make a ruling on this complaint.

In an opinion piece in the Irish Times recently, Keane, who was unavailable for comment this weekend, wrote, "If Poolbeg is constructed as planned, jobs will be lost, recycling will decline and the local authority will end up subsidising the operation of the plant with taxpayers' money."