Closed sugar factory ideal for the fuel of the future

TWO issues that should be top priority for the Department of the Environment and Cork County Council are climate change and the need for increased energy production.

If we develop a local, renewable carbon-neutral alternative fuel industry, we can deal with climate change and energy together.

But if we continue to use fossil fuels to produce the extra energy or use transport energy to import alternative fuels, then we are going to produce more emissions and more climate change.

In Mallow, the sugar factory complex, with reasonable adjustment, could be transformed into an ethanol factory. If we made this decision now, we would be in time to plant beet this spring.

We would have until next autumn to prepare the factory and by winter ‘08, Mallow would be producing fuel from indigenous sources.

The alternative is simply to demolish the factory.

This would be an environmental disaster in terms of energy expended and landfill.

It would also be an economic disaster for Mallow which has an experienced workforce with the skills needed to process beet and cereals.

And it would be a disaster for the agricultural catchment area around Mallow where there is the proven capacity to grow the beet and cereals needed for ethanol.

Greencore wants to plunder the site and convert it for residential and commercial purposes.

We can build houses and shopping centres anywhere, but Mallow is in a unique position.

Draw a wide circle around it and you encompass some of the richest farmland in Ireland.

In Mallow we could process vast amounts of energy crops without wasting vast amounts of fuel for transportation.

What would persuade Greencore to leave the factory site so we can produce clean energy there? For starters, the county council could give Greencore a site in exchange.

Then ...

* Greencore would not have the expense of demolishing and clearing the sugar factory site.

* The environment would not have to cope with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rubble.

* Farmers would have a factory for their produce.

* The former beet workers would have their jobs back.

* Business in Mallow would get a significant boost.

* We would have taken a major step to meet our carbon targets.

In other words, everyone wins.

And to further encourage Greencore to accept a swap, I propose that Environment Minister Dick Roche declare the factory site a specially designated zone for energy-rated industry.

These are simple strategies and I am convinced they would work.

The opportunities presented by the sugar reform were not properly understood a year ago. This last chance to rectify the situation at Mallow must not be squandered.

Kathy Sinnott MEP

European Parliament

Strasbourg