Minister faces grilling over BSE warehouse
The minister will be asked to explain why residents and local representatives in a rural region on the border between north and south Tipperary were not told that 570 BSE-infected animal carcasses were being stored in a warehouse on their doorstep.
The warehouse is run by the Department of Agriculture Fine Gael's deputy agriculture spokesman, Tom Hayes, will be raising the storage of carcasses at Horse and Jockey with the minister. The unit lies within walking distance of Ballytarsna National School and farm houses.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the matter is one for the department but added that it is re-examining the issue to check if the facility requires a licence.
While the department insists its actions on the site were not secretive, furious residents say they were not told what was going on there. There are no signs at the site indicating that it is department-owned. Nor are there hazardous waste warnings. "My understanding, and that of my constituents, was that this was a food store," a furious Deputy Hayes said.
"This is in the heart of my constituency area yet I knew nothing about it," he said. "People should know what they are living next door to. It's just not good enough that such facilities should be hidden away." Local resident Eleanor Dwyer and her husband, Willie Joe, farm in Ballytarsna, just a stone's throw from the warehouse. They too knew nothing about what was going on there: "We've heard various rumours alright. But nobody has confirmed for us exactly what is going on there. A Department of Agriculture spokesman said BSE carcasses A Department of Agriculture spokesman said BSE carcasses cannot be incinerated; they can only be cold-stored. The Tipperary facility is the only one of its kind in the country.
"According to our investigation, no planning permission is required for what we are doing at this site. "Our people contacted the county council as a matter of courtesy to let them know what was being stored there. It is not a case that we were being secretive spokesman said.
