Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan failed to use her powers to prevent the sugar factories at Mallow and Carlow from closing, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said today.
In an attack on Ms Coughlan's handling of the winding down of the Irish sugar industry, Mr Rabbitte said the plants could have been converted for bioethanol production.
Instead, Ms Coughlan had allowed Irish Sugar's parent company, Greencore, to fall under the influence of a property developer who "has his eye on the company's property portfolio and, specifically, on the sites at Mallow and Carlow," he said.
Mr Rabbitte said that under Greencore's articles of association, the Minister could veto any shareholder amassing more than a 15 per cent stake in the company.
"She has at all stages in her handling of this affair omitted to point out that she and her predecessors have held a special share in Greencore since 1991. The purpose of the special share was to ensure that the State could effectively exercise control over the sugar operations of the company," Mr Rabbitte said.
Farmers reacted angrily on Wednesday when Ms Coughlan allocated Greencore €98 million out of €140 million in EU funding for the of the sugar industry. Some €40 million was allocated to beet growers, and €7 million to contractors.
The Irish Farmers' Association said Ms Coughlan had only given an average €10,000 to each farmer and was therefore "favouring big business over farm families".
However, Greencore insisted it was entitled to more money and said it was considering legal action.
Speaking in Clonmel today, Mr Rabbitte said Ms Coughlan did not use her power to keep beet growers in business by directing the company to convert Mallow and Carlow into ethanol production plants.
Ehtanol can be mixed with petrol and use in cars without any adverse effects and is one of the proposals being considered to help Ireland reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"This was not a case where a Government minister was powerless to intervene in the operations of the market. This was a case where the State held State control over a State asset and specifically consented to that asset being renounced."
"There is nothing in the EU regulations passed last February that requires the closure of the Mallow factory. Those regulations envisage that what was formerly a sugar processing factory can be adapted to other uses," Mr Rabbitte said.
An opportunity to avail of EU aid for developing alternative fuels had also been missed, Mr Rabbitte added.