National By-Products, the company which has been given planning permission to build the controversial incinerator to handle meat and bonemeal at Castleblake, Cashel, Co Tipperary, has appealed to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to restate his support for such a plant.
The company, which is coming under increasing pressure from an anti-incinerator group, called on the Minister to become involved because his expressed views were an important dimension to the debate surrounding the proposed project. "They could help counter some of the more inflammatory and ill-informed comments by local opponents of the project, including the leading trainer, Aidan O'Brien," the company said. It added that in November 2000, Mr Walsh told the Dáil he would be very pleased if any county built an incinerator because a waste disposal system for meat and bonemeal was needed.
It quoted him as saying in January 2000 that the BSE crisis had made an incinerator "an essential element if we are to sustain a food industry" and Mr Walsh had warned we could no longer export our problems abroad.
The company said the storage of meat and bonemeal and its export for incineration abroad was currently costing the Government and the taxpayer about €50 million a year. "Meat and bonemeal is a safe fuel and our proposal to generate electricity by burning it is clearly in the national interest and is fully in accord with Government policy as previously outlined by the Minister.
"It will also save the Government and the taxpayer tens of millions of euro," said a spokesman.
"Our technology is perfectly safe and the plant will be operated and controlled in a manner which meets and exceeds the stringent requirements of the World Health Organisation and the EPA," it said.
"The company is concerned there is a deliberate campaign of misinformation being waged by opponents of the project which appears to be aimed at scaring the people of south Tipperary and also to influence the relevant authorities to withhold approval," it said.