A member of the Green Party, environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment, An Taisce and one of the state’s most prominent planning objectors are among those who have submitted objections to the EPA against issuing an operating licence to Dairygold Co-op and Norwegian dairy company TINE for their new cheese plant at Mogeely, Co Cork.

The Mogeely plant cannot start operations without an EPA licence

In the last two weeks of March, the EPA received 10 objections from third parties against issuing a licence for the new Mogeely cheese plant, which is practically complete and has the capacity to produce 20,000t of Jarlsberg cheese every year.

The Mogeely plant cannot start operations without an EPA licence and will not be up and running to help process this year’s peak milk supply in May as previously planned.

Some of the objectors include Gordon Reid, a member of the Green Party who lost out on a seat during the 2019 local elections, An Taisce, Friends of the Irish Environment, Inland Fisheries Ireland as well as Peter Sweetman, a Mayo native who is one of the foremost planning objectors in Ireland. Local residents who are members of the Protect East Ferry Water group have also objected.

Peter Sweetman, son of former Fine Gael minister for finance Gerard Sweetman, is a renowned environmental activist and a serial objector to many projects across the state

Friends of the Irish Environment is objecting on the grounds that the €77m expansion of the Mogeely cheese plant is facilitating rising carbon emissions in Ireland, while other objections relate to the discharge of treated wastewater.

Peter Sweetman, son of former Fine Gael minister for finance Gerard Sweetman, is a renowned environmental activist and a serial objector to many projects across the state.

Sweetman has objected to such projects as the Kerry cycling greenway, the Doonbeg seawall, the ESB substation at Ratheniska, the Shell Corrib gas pipeline, the Metro North in Dublin, the Slane bypass, the Ballina bypass, the Galway city outer bypass, waste-to-energy plants in Cork, Meath and Galway, as well as wind farm projects all over Ireland.