Dairygold says it remains confident of moving its back office administration to a business park at Cork Airport despite Cork County Council telling the co-op that it believes such a move would be in breach of planning.
A Cork County Council spokesman said the enforcement section of its planning department had warned Dairygold in a letter that it would be in breach of planning if it proceeded with the move of 120 staff to the Cork Airport Business Park building.
It said it was not in accordance with the planning permission obtained for the building at the business park.
"The letter outlines the fact that it has come to the attention of the planning authority that unauthorised development may be carried out at Cork Airport Business Park," the council spokesman said.
Dairygold now has four weeks in which to make written submissions or observations which the council's planning officials will consider before they decide whether to proceed with enforcement action through an enforcement notice or to initiate legal proceedings.
The Irish Times understands that the business park, which was developed by an Irish company, Omnistone, and offers 480,000 sq ft of accommodation in 19 units, is governed by three different planning permissions.
The building to which Dairygold proposes moving is governed by planning permission granted in 1999. One of the conditions outlines what type of activities can be carried out in the building.
Condition 2 states that "occupiers of the development shall be air transport, air users or designated manufacturing or internationally trading services under the 1997 Finance Act".
It is believed that the central issue over whether Dairygold conforms to the planning permission requirements centres on whether it qualifies as an internationally trading services company under the 1997 Act.
A Dairygold spokesman yesterday expressed confidence that the company would satisfy Cork County Council that its proposed move would meet the planning requirements and that it would convince the council of this soon.
"We don't expect that it will affect our schedule to move, starting on December 13th," the spokesman said.
However the Mitchelstown Business Association, which has lobbied against the move of some 120 Dairygold staff from Mallow and Mitchelstown, said Cork County Council's decision gave the company an opportunity to sit down and to talk to the staff.
The association's chairman, Mr Tony Lewis, said: "We don't see this as a victory for anyone, we see it much more as an opportunity for Dairygold to move on from this debacle of moving its administration to Cork and to sit down in a meaningful and rational way and talk with the workforce.
"We believe that Dairygold should sit down and talk with both the workforce and the community because a huge amount of damage has been done to the morale of the workforce and that isn't good for the company going forward," he said.
Mitchelstown-based councillor Mr Kevin O'Keeffe (FF), who first questioned whether a move by Dairygold to Cork Airport Business Park was possible under current planning conditions, welcomed Cork County Council's decision on the matter.
"I'm very pleased at the county manager's decision that this proposal doesn't comply with the County Development Plan," Mr O'Keeffe said.
"I would hope now that Dairygold would reconsider its plan to move from north Cork before they bring anymore adverse publicity on themselves."