An Taisce is considering the judgement made by the High Court today to uphold a decision to grant planning permission to Glanbia for the construction of a new cheese manufacturing plant in Belview, Co. Kilkenny, the organisation has said.
The agency gave its reaction to the decision made in the High Court in a statement this afternoon.
The non-governmental organisation (NGO) will consider the judgement to “determine if there are grounds that warrant an application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal or for an application to the Supreme Court”, An Taisce has said.
The organisation also said it has “very significant concerns” around what it said “appears to have been a highly coordinated and high-profile media campaign mounted in order to attempt to influence the outcome of the case after the hearing had concluded”.
In a statement today (Tuesday, April 20), the NGO said: “In November 2020 An Taisce brought a legal challenge against the granting of planning permission on several grounds.”
This, it said, included that “the environmental impact of the agricultural activity arising from the production of the estimated 450 million litres of milk per year needed to supply the plant should have been assessed by An Bord Pleanála, particularly the impact from the resulting ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions and the likely deterioration in water quality”.
“An Taisce is now considering the judgment to determine if there are grounds that warrant an application for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal or for an application to the Supreme Court.”
Dr. Elaine McGoff, natural environment officer with An Taisce, said:
“In this case, the judge did not find in our favour, but this does not alter the validity of our concerns.
“As consistently confirmed by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], all our environmental indicators are going in the wrong direction, with a drastic loss of water quality and biodiversity, and rising greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions.
“Our case was that these impacts simply must be taken into account for any large dairy processing facility of the huge scale proposed,” McGoff added.
Stressing that “this was not a case taken against farmers” but rather a case “taken for our environment and the future viability of farming”, An Taisce also highlighted the importance that “environmental non-governmental organisations like An Taisce have access to a review process for problematic planning decisions”.