An Taisce vs Glanbia: Behind the battle lines of a pivotal planning case
The legal row over the environmental impact of the Belview plant has huge implications for the entire dairy sector and beyond
Last month, a High Court case began between Glanbia Ireland and An Taisce over proposed plans to build a €140m continental cheese plant in Belview, Co Kilkenny.
The judicial review centres on the decision of An Bord Pleanála to uphold planning permission for the joint venture between Glanbia and Dutch firm Royal A-Ware Food Group.
An Taisce contends that An Bord Pleanála “disregarded” issues raised in its appeal against the decision of Kilkenny County Council to grant permission for the plant in November 2019.
Restrictions
The debacle has resulted in the imposition of peak milk production restrictions, which it is estimated will impact on at least 30pc of Glanbia’s 4,500 milk suppliers.
As all sides await the court judgment – expected in June — the Farming Independent looks at the key concerns raised in An Taisce’s December 2019 appeal, including parallels drawn between Ireland’s dairy industry and its severely restricted commercial peat harvesting industry.
An Taisce says granting seven-year planning permission for the cheese plant “would contravene” the EU’s Habitat Directive and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive; plus Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015.
It says “milk supply inputs” for the proposed plant
(ie dairy farms) “must be fully assessed” in terms of compliance with these laws, and warns of “adverse implications” for greenhouse gas generation, nitrates impact on soil and water quality, biodiversity loss, and ammonia air pollution.
It points to a 2019 EPA water quality report which highlights “particular concern” over the impact of increasing nitrogen levels “in the south-east of the country”.
An Taisce’s appeal states: “Regardless of whether the subject proposal will increase the dairy herd and intensify production, Ireland has an obligation to cut GHG emissions, which will require reducing dairy production, not merely keeping it stable at current levels and certainly not increasing it.”
It argues that “there are crucial parallels” with the High Court ruling on Bord na Móna’s Edenderry Power Plant in 2015, which said there was “functional interdependence” between the plant and the Bord na Móna bogs that supplied peat for it.
It was decided that the fuel source (peat) “should have been considered” as part of the application for the continued operation of the power plant.
The current appeal says: “Given the comparable relationship with the source of the milk and the proposed cheese plant… the source of the milk and environmental impacts associated with milk production must be considered when assessing the subject application…
“Dairy production, both nationally and in the southeast, needs to be reduced. There is no capacity for new milk processing capacity as proposed in this application.”
However, An Bord Pleanála 86-page inspector’s report, published last June, punched holes in many of these arguments.
In granting planning permission, it said the assessment of indirect effects on an individual farm level “is not only impractical and unreasonable”, but is also “not in spirit” of the EIA or Habitats Directives.
It says the planning submission “provides a sufficient amount of information” on the supply of milk in order for “a sufficient level of assessment” on any potential related impacts, direct or indirect, to be undertaken and “robustly” concluded.
It said that while Glanbia ensures that “best agricultural practices” are implemented on its supplier farms to minimise emissions, responsibility for policing emissions from farms “is a matter for local authorities and Government agencies”.
It said the 2019 EPA report showed that water bodies in nearby catchment areas “improved by 16pc as opposed to the overall decline in water quality referenced by An Taisce”.
And on the milk/peat comparisons, it observed: “While the proposed cheese factory is dependent on the supply of milk, there is functional independence in that the raw material is coming from circa 4,500 dairy farms over which Glanbia has no legal right to oversee how these independent suppliers operate”.
An Bord Pleanála concluded that, subject to compliance with 14 new conditions, the proposed development “would be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”.
The judicial review has put the spotlight on national peak milk processing capacity and the ramifications of the country’s planning laws for future development.
Addressing supplier fury on peak milk restrictions (April, May and June) up to 2024, Glanbia chairman John Murphy said recently: “Glanbia has been the fastest-growing dairy in the world over the last seven years. We’ve invested hugely, increased our milk pool by 70pc and we’re very ambitious for the future.
“The venture with Royal A-Ware is an opportunity to diversify away from our cheddar cheese dependency in the UK. We were due to kick off this time next year, but now it is totally out of our hands.
“An Taisce has appealed this over 18 months, and we still haven’t got to the starting blocks.
Problem
“This is causing a problem. We can manage about 100m litres of growth over the next year and the year after, but beyond that the churn is full — it’s not possible for us to take in any more.
“People say ‘do more with the rest of the industry’… but the problem is we’re full and, actually, Ireland is full as well.
“The folks making the complaint are not complaining about the facility itself, they are complaining about the impact farmers are having on water quality, nitrates and carbon — and ironically, this situation we’ve been forced into is not going to help the environment, it is going to do the opposite.
“This has never happened before in the Irish dairy industry. We are all victims of the slow planning process.”
‘Ironically, this situation we’ve been forced into is not going to help the environment, it is going to do the opposite’