Bio-energy plant hearing continues

ONE OF the promoters of a proposed animal by-products processing plant in south Tipperary said he was confident that the facility would get enough raw materials to function.

The eleventh day of a Bord Pleanála oral hearing into a plan by consortium Green Organics Energy to build the bio-energy and bio-diesel plant halfway between Clonmel and Cashel heard that the meat industry would supply about 80% of the by-products.

GOE project manager Paul Barrett said that the plant would also take “brown bin” waste as well as meat and bone meal and waste oils from the food industry.

Referring to an analogy from baseball film Field of Dreams, Mr Barrett said: “If you build it, they will come. If we build it, that opportunity will exist. If we don’t, then maybe it won’t”.

Among those objecting to the GOE plans are local residents’ lobby group South Tipperary for Clean Industry, stud giant Coolmore and trainer Aidan O’Brien and his wife Anne-Marie.

On Thursday Mr O’Brien had stated dampness in the air was “disastrous” for horses and this had occurred in the past from rendering processes at the Avglade site in Castleblake, Rosegreen, close to the Ballydoyle operation.

Yesterday, Mr Barrett denied that there would be a “plume” of steam rising from the processing plant, if it got the go-ahead, as a result of the Thermal Pressure Hyrolysis process.

Referring to Aidan O’Brien’s comments about dampness in the air, he said: “If the moisture in the air is measured with the damp climate, you’d find a lot more moisture from the weather than anything this plant would produce. That’s why we get so much rain.”

Evidence in the oral hearing at Clonmel’s Hotel Minella concluded yesterday and closing submissions will begin on Monday morning.