Explanation demanded as Banagher Meat Plant saga drags on for 16 months

An Offaly TD has this week demanded an explanation as to why the Banagher Chilling Meat Plant saga is dragging on for so long.

Deputy Barry Cowen pointed out that continued delays at An Bord Pleanála (ABP) level to the long-awaited €40m meat processing plant in Banagher are “entirely unacceptable”.

Offaly County Council granted permission for the massive project back in August 2020 but that decision was subsequently appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

The application to Offaly County Council was made by Banagher Chilling Limited to build an extension at an existing abattoir in the location of Boheradurrow / Meenwaun, which is near Taylor's Cross on the Birr / Banagher road.

The extension will be 1061 square metres and will include processing rooms, staff changing rooms, and offices. Banagher Chilling also plans to develop a food processing factory of 4,925 square metres which will include processing rooms, a cold store, loading bay, chill rooms, plant rooms, staff changing rooms, staff canteen and administration offices. There will be a water treatment building of 72 square metres and an effluent treatment control house of 30 square metres. An Environmental Impact Assessment Report and a Natura Impact Statement were submitted with the planning application. Banagher Chilling's application was submitted to the Council in July 2019.

Speaking to The Midland Tribune, Deputy Cowen said the Banagher Chilling application was being made on behalf of a “Chinese led consortium”. This consortium wishes to remain anonymous.

“An Bord Pleanála,” stated Deputy Cowen, “have a duty to independently assess the application from a planning and development perspective, ensuring, as Offaly County Council is also compelled to do, that it meets various regulations pertaining to all matters governing such a decision.

“These matters governing their decision include the engineering details, the infrastructural details, the building regulations, traffic management, health & safety, the environmental impact, and so on.

“ABP has no duty to pass judgement on the promoters (the Chinese led consortium) nor is it of any material concern.”

The appellants named in the appeal against the project are Desmond Kampff and Gwen Wordingham who submitted, on behalf of “a group of concerned local people”, their appeal to ABP on August 21, 2020. Mr Kampff lives about a kilometre from the proposed development. “We fundamentally believe,” he remarked, “that there is no justification for the development of a facility of this scale at this location.”

The appeal states that existing meat processing plants in the region are currently at or under capacity. “If this plant was to operate at a viable capacity,” state the objectors, “it would lead to the failure of one or more of the existing plants under current conditions.

“Considering international pressure to decrease the production of beef as a driver of climate change,” continues the appeal, “the herd is likely to continue to decrease in numbers locally and nationally, rendering plants such as this one highly likely to fail.

“We are also extremely concerned about the potential impact of this proposed development on the environment, both in terms of carbon emissions and climate change, and in relation to biodiversity.”

In response to these claims Deputy Cowen told the Midland Tribune that, “I personally don't believe the assertion made by the objector that a new plant will impact negatively on other plants in the region; I don't believe this assertion can be upheld.” He added that predicting herd numbers is purely speculative and that a full environmental assessment of the proposed plant had been made.
“There is strong support for the project across the community and in the farming fraternity,” continued the Deputy. “There being only one objection to ABP signifies that and acknowledges Offaly County Council's decision to grant permission was the right one.
“Everything about this project has a positive potential impact for farming, the food industry and the economy, for Offaly; and not just in the midlands but the country at large. Those holding it back are misguided and they are holding everybody back. This problem needs to be called out for what it is, because we badly need more industry and more jobs in rural Ireland.”

He said a new plant won't result in employee layoffs in other factories.

He added that the Chinese led consortium will have to operate their factory according to western employment standards and not Chinese employment standards.

The proposed Banagher Chilling location was an abattoir for a number of years, which was also used for the slaughtering of unwanted horses during the recession. The premises was sold to the Chinese investors a few years ago.

In August 2020 it also emerged that a government evaluation committee refused an Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) application to one of the Chinese investors behind the Banagher plant. IIPs are issued to immigrants who want to invest in a new venture in Ireland. The refusal of the IIP application was probably linked to the ABP appeal.

In May 2021, Deputy Cowen received the support of the Dáil when he introduced a Bill which proposes to amend the Planning and Development Act 2000 to ensure that every appeal or referral is determined within a period of 12 weeks beginning on the date of receipt by the Board of the appeal or referral.

Emphasising the importance of the Bill, he said, “The Bill seeks to respond to the need for An Bord Pleanála to be statutorily bound by a defined time period for them to make a decision on planning files, rather than the present situation in which there is no controls or obligations in place for decisions to be made in a timely fashion.

“Many delays in proposed developments are putting such proposals in jeopardy because of the prolonged and ridiculous lengths of time for such important decisions to be made.

“My Bill is aimed at freeing up the logjam which is delaying such key commercial developments. We can no longer preside over an arm of the state foot-dragging and causing such delay as to potential investment which is badly needed – especially in rural areas like my own constituency.

"It is also inconceivable that residential developments are also being curtailed, delayed and even lost owing to there being no statutory time periods for An Bord Pleanála decisions. This should not be tolerated.

“It is also time for an overhaul of the judicial review processes which are also far too cumbersome and slow, and are further delaying and harming our potential to respond adequately to the housing crisis.''

In September 2020 the Offaly branch of the Beef Plan Movement called upon An Bord Pleanála to reverse its decision about the proposed meat processing plant in Banagher.

The plant might generate 150 jobs, said Kieran Delaney, Chairman of the Beef Plan Movement “and it was given planning approval by Offaly County Council.” Mr Delaney said his group strongly wants to see the project being given the green light. “When we heard the County Council had given the go-ahead,” he said, “we were very pleased, but then came the news that An Bord Pleanála had over-ridden that decision. The county needs more meat processing plants because at the moment you have a monopoly of big meat factories who are often giving farmers unfair prices for their cattle. More meat plants coming onstream would mean more competition and therefore farmers would be better off. Jobs are also badly needed and the new plant would become one of the major employers in the South Offaly region. Seeing the project mothballed like this is a major disappointment. It's a major loss for farmers in the midlands.”

Deputy Carol Nolan also wants to see the Banagher Chilling Plant going ahead. Several months ago she called on the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee “to supply greater detail and clarity as to the reasons why the application for the proposed new meat processing plant in Banagher was rejected.”
  “The proposed €40 million meat plant at Banagher,” she commented, “represented a very welcome and much needed opening for job creation and the injection of vital investment funds within the county. Now that this has been thrown into doubt, there is a real risk that other potential investors will look at this example and reconsider any interest they may have had.”

She said the project had “wide-ranging and broad support”, not just from farmers but also from state bodies such as Bord Bia and Offaly County Council. “That represented a level of agreement and collaboration that should be encouraged. Offaly – and indeed the entire midlands – cannot afford to let valuable job creation prospects like the Banagher project pass without a fight.”

One local person campaigning against the plant said it made no sense during our “Climate Change era to be opening a facility which would process meat that would then be transported by air to China.”

Deputy Cowen told the Tribune that ABP are “not obliged to give any reason for a delay in their decision making process other than they haven't completed the process they employ. That's why it's essential to amend legislation governing Bord Pleanála and make it statutory that a decision be made on all appeals within a defined period. The Government accepted the Bill which I presented to the Dáil in May. The government agreed to bring forward a planning reform bill addressing this and other issues pertaining to planning and development processes.”
In September 2021 Deputy Nolan said she had directly engaged with An Bord Pleanála on the matter. The board confirmed to Deputy Nolan that the planning appeal case is still ongoing and “is under further consideration”.
In March 2021 An Bord Pleanála also confirmed to Deputy Nolan that it was only when the inspector’s report was discharged that it would go to the board for formal consideration.
“Serious questions must now be asked as to why this planning saga is dragging on for so long,” she stated. “In March 2021 An Bord Pleanála told me that it was not in a position to determine the outcome of the appeal related to Banagher Chilling because they had yet to receive the inspector’s report on the appeal, which was due by March 1, 2021.”