Company had unauthorised licence deal

THE giant Aughinish Alumina (AAL) plant on the Shannon Estuary had an unauthorised arrangement with an official of the Shannon Regional Fisheries permitting the company not to report certain breaches of its pollution control licence.

The matter was brought to the notice of members of the fisheries board at a meeting in Limerick yesterday.

It had earlier been raised in the Dáil by Deputy Joe Higgins who asked the Minister for the Marine about a 2003 deal between AAL and the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board.