So last night, I posted on a front-page story from the Sunday Business Post that claimed that the ESRI withdrawing a report on waste management in Dublin.

Titled “Errors force ESRI to withdraw waste document”, the piece by John Burke says:

The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is to withdraw a controversial report it published on waste management in Dublin because of errors in the document.

The report, which was published last week, criticised environment minister John Gormley’s waste strategy, leading the minister to query the think-tank’s standards in preparing the report. Now, in an embarrassing move for the ESRI, one of its most high-profile environment experts has said that the report is being pulled from circulation.

The piece continues by quoting ESRI researcher Professor Richard Tol confirming that report would be rechecked:

Any errors identified will be corrected… we’re in the middle of redoing what needs to be redone

Last night, Tol commented on the Sunday Leads post and denied that the report was being withdrawn:

The ESRI will not withdraw the waste report.

He also denied that the ESRI used the word “withdraw” was used at all.

According to Tol, he told the Sunday Business Post the following:

A number of people and organizations have claimed that there are errors in the ESRI report “An Economic Approach to Municipal Waste Management Policy in Ireland”. We are currently working through these claims, assessing their veracity and, if so, the implications for the conclusions. We will issue a response to the claims once we have finished that work.

Tol says that other media organisations were briefed to similar effect by report co-author Paul Gorecki as well.

Links of interest:

• ‘An Economic Approach to Municipal Waste Management Policy in Ireland’on the ESRI website
• ESRI denies it ‘acted without integrity’ on incinerator report – Irish Times, February 5th 2010