‘Big new dairy plants may face fate of abandoned peat power stations’

NEW dairy plants could face a similar fate to “the abandoned peat power plants” of the midlands, An Taisce has warned.

The National Trust for Ireland, which advocates for environmental conservation and sustainable development, has cautioned that prospective investment in future dairy processing facilities “could become a debt risk”.

It comes as concern escalates over the impact of the ongoing High Court case into Glanbia’s proposed €140m continental cheese plant in Belview, Co Kilkenny — the judicial review began last month following an appeal against the development by An Taisce on environmental grounds.

It has emerged that “numerous” farmer proposals for new milking parlours and slurry storage facilities are being targeted too.

Phoebe Duvall, planning and environmental policy officer at An Taisce, told the Farming Independent that the body will “continue to scrutinise” any developments with regards to “environmental legal compliance”.

“There is a major risk that expanding Irish dairy production and processing investment could become a debt risk,” she said.

“The consequences of ill-advised investment and public policy failure are evident in the two abandoned peat power plants in Longford and Offaly which were built only 15 years ago.

“Heavy investment in intensive dairy infrastructure may face a similar prospect.”

Ms Duvall contended that the vast majority of An Taisce submissions for planning applications on dairy (as well as beef, pig or poultry expansion, etc) at local council level are not lodged as “objections”.

“Our submissions would raise the need for further assessment on particular local or site-based impacts, or on wider cumulative impacts — including ammonia air pollution (on which Ireland has breached the EU-mandated national emissions ceiling threshold limit since 2016); indirect water quality impacts due to slurry and fertiliser spreading resulting from increased milk production; and impacts to natural habitats and species,” she said.

“These requests for further information are aimed at ensuring compliance with national and EU environmental law.”

While not drawn on the volume of such submissions in process, nor the detail of the cases, she said An Taisce’s focus over the last year has been dairy expansion applications in “the south and south-east of the country”.

These applications “have significant potential cumulative impacts on river catchments in Munster and south Leinster,” she said.

“An Taisce is one of a number of bodies with an environment or heritage remit which are given referral notice of application in locations of environmental sensitivity, including river catchments.

“An Taisce will continue to rely on science and will work within the law using the statutory responsibilities we have been entrusted with.”

ICMSA president Pat McCormack warned that objections to individual farm improvements and investments are emerging as “a local and individual problem”. He said this development is “in step with the lack of leadership and direction” at national level.

“We are aware of numerous cases where plans for new milking parlours had been objected to by groups who were being encouraged to object by the lack of support and commitment for dairying at national level,” he said.

“And by a relentless barrage of misinformation and downright lies propagated through media — both traditional and social.”

Mr McCormack described the objections as “usually questionable” and “nearly always illogical”.

“There are objections to applications for increased slurry storage on environmental grounds,” he said.

 

“If we have to explain why increased slurry storage is better for the environment, then we begin to see the depth to which misinformation and downright ignorance of the facts is really distorting the whole question of continuing the development of our commercial dairy sector sustainably.

“The confusion around this at individual level reflects the confusion around this at national level. We desperately need to see categorical and practical support from the state for our most valuable rural economic and social engines.”

Indo Farming