The company behind a proposed incinerator near Cashel, Co Tipperary, will submit an application for a licence to the Environmental Protection Agency this morning in the face of mounting opposition from anti-incineration campaigners.
National By-Products is seeking an Integrated Pollution Control licence to operate a burner to treat meat and bonemeal at its rendering plant in the village of Rosegreen. However, the Taoiseach's special adviser, Senator Martin Mansergh, said yesterday he believed the project did not have any Government backing and was unlikely to go ahead.
The company, which was granted planning permission to develop the facility last May, said the licence would remove grounds for "reckless scaremongering by opponents".
It details the materials which can and cannot be processed in the facility, the emissions standards that will apply and the monitoring regime that will be enforced at the plant.
Around 20,000 people have signed petitions objecting to the development in the area known as the Golden Vale.
These include trainer Aidan O'Brien, who has threatened to move his operations at the nearby Coolmore Stud to the US if the incinerator goes ahead.
A number of local TDs, GPS and the Cashel Chamber of Commerce have also voiced their opposition to the development.
A spokesman for National By-Products said the licence application should finally set to rest the "ridiculous claims" made by opponents of the facility.
He said their comparisons with municipal waste incinerators and their comments about health risks were incorrect.
Opponents of the proposed facility claim it would be a threat to public health, local food production and the economy.
The company, which is owned and run by the Ronan family, has argued that the storage and export of meat and bonemeal currently cost the Government and the taxpayer up to €50 million a year.
The South Tipperary Anti-Incinerator Campaign, which placed a half-page ad in a national newspaper yesterday containing warnings against the dangers of the proposed incinerator, rejected the suggestion that its campaign was based on misinformation.
Speaking yesterday, Senator Mansergh said he had submitted a personal objection to the project to An Bord Pleanála.
"I don't believe there is any Government backing at a political level for this project," he said. "There is total opposition among the local community.
"I don't think this incinerator will ever come about, to be frank," he said.
In response, a spokesman for National By-Products questioned whether it was "the Government or Mr Mansergh who were deciding policy in this matter".