Taskforce urged to secure oil refinery

The Government has been urged to set up a taskforce to secure the future of the country’s only oil refinery and nationalise it in the process.

Cork County Council has written to the government saying this must be done as a matter of urgency, ahead of a possible pull out of the refinery by its current operators, Phillips 66.

Concern has been raised that the US multi-national energy company will withdraw from the refinery at Whitegate, Co Cork when its contract to run the facility expires next July.