Committee to probe relaunch of sugar plant

AN Oireachtas committee is to investigate why the Irish sugar beet industry was shut down and, furthermore, explore ways of negotiating a new sugar quota with the EU to restart the industry.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food wants to establish the detail of discussions between Greencore, the Government and the European Commission, before the company took the decision to close the Mallow sugar beet factory in Co Cork in 2006 with the loss of some 320 jobs.

The decision— which EU auditors said was unnecessary because the business was profitable — left Ireland as the only EU country without a sugar beet industry.