Convert sugar factories for biofuels

WITH rising energy prices and fuel supply uncertainties, Natural Resources Minister Noel Dempsey is to be complimented on his scheme to promote production of 163 million litres of biofuel from indigenous sources.

The sugar factories in Mallow and Carlow have the potential to economically produce ethanol from beet, amounting to 10% of the current national petrol consumption.

The EU sugar reform provides for 75% compensation when sugar quotas are reduced and the factories converted to ethanol production in line with the EU strategy on biofuels. Effectively, that would provide ethanol facilities (the sugar factories) at a huge discount, which is a unique economic opportunity to serve the national interest best.

Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan ill-advisedly failed to support conversion rather than demolition. This, of course, suited Greencore, which favours selling the sites for maximum profit — but the assets and factories of Irish Sugar were made available by the State in 1991 to Greencore on the express and legally enforceable condition that they could not be disposed of without the written permission of the agriculture minister. This ‘golden share’ was put there to protect the national interest.

The minister also failed to ensure the integrity of the Carlow factory, which was disabled by Greencore in 2005.

In the circumstances of the EU strategy for biofuels and Mr Dempsey’s new initiative, the issue of conversion now needs to be objectively reconsidered at the highest level of Government and EU administration.

If the factories are demolished then the option for domestic ethanol production will be lost for ever. In the views of many beet growers and others, the national interest would be best served by the revival of the beet industry for ethanol — and not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Revival would bestow many benefits, including:

Strategic supply of home-produced ethanol;

Significant ecological benefits;

Strategic supply of sugar, with savings in transport costs;

Sustained employment in both factory areas;

Farmers continuing with beet as a cash and tillage break crop;

Underpinning of the domestic confectionery industry.

There are many building sites but only two sugar factories, both readily convertible for ethanol. Not to use them would be more profligate than the 52m squandered on electronic voting. It would reveal a lack of vision and flawed political judgment likely to be long remembered.

Allan J Navratil

Ballinacurra House

Midleton

Co Cork.