There are fears for the future of around half of Moneypoint power station’s 194-strong workforce.

Green party leader Eamon Ryan is is an even-tempered kind of guy, but make the economic argument for keeping Ireland’s only coal-fired power plant going and watch him get hot under the collar.

If the upgrade to the national electricity grid is not carried out, the country will face blackouts, Gridlink project manager John Lowry said yesterday.

The gradual conversion of the country’s largest power station from coal to biomass would allow Ireland to meet its renewable energy targets “in one single stroke”, according to a British energy expert who completed a report for one of the country’s anti-pylon groups.