The Sean Quinn group has begun construction of a glass manufacturing plant in Co Fermanagh. The £40 million plant aims to manufacture up to 150,000 tonnes of glass annually by its fifth year of production and create 453 jobs in the local economy at Derrylin. Planning permission was granted last week. The site is close by a cement works, quarries and a concrete products plant, all owned by the company. It is expected some raw materials for the glass plant will be supplied from the local quarries.

The plant's main manufacturing unit, the first of its kind in the North, will cover 20,000 sq m and will be surrounded by cooling, packaging and warehouse units. The amount of government funding for the project, believed by the British Glass Manufacturers Confederation to be about £13 million sterling, was raised in the House of Commons in July when Mr Eric Illsley, Labour MP for Barnsley, said the grant would allow the factory to undercut cost levels in Britain and "displace jobs".

Mr Adam Ingram, Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, said the matter was "of a contractual nature" and the project could not be looked at again.

A spokesman for the Sean Quinn Group was unavailable for comment yesterday.