The leading racehorse trainer, Mr Aidan O'Brien, has told the High Court he believes the health of his family and local residents will be at risk if an animal waste company is allowed to build an incinerator near his stables at Ballydoyle, Co Tipperary.
His fears were outlined in a sworn statement handed in yesterday to Mr Justice O'Neill, who set October 3rd for the hearing of an application by Mr O'Brien for leave to legally challenge South Tipperary County Council's decision to grant planning permission for the incinerator.
Mr Donal O'Donnell SC, counsel for Mr O'Brien, told the court he would also be seeking an injunction restraining An Bord Pleanála from hearing an appeal against the permission pending determination of judicial review proceedings.
Mr Dermot Gleeson SC, counsel for the proposed developer, National By Products Ltd, said he would be opposing the granting of leave for a judicial review and was in favour of the Bord Pleanála appeal going ahead.
Mr O'Brien, of Rosegreen, Cashel, told the court that he and his wife, Anne-Marie, and their four children live and carry out horse-training at Ballydoyle, which had gained an unrivalled international reputation as a racehorse training centre.
The gallops themselves had been carefully created over the last 50 years to replicate many of the features of famous racecourses such as Epsom, and the finest thoroughbreds in the world were brought there for training and subsequent participation in some of the great horse races in the world.
He said that adjoining his lands, in Castleblake, Rosegreen, National By Products had lodged a proposal for an animal-waste incinerator about 1,500 metres from his home.
It would burn specified risk material made from meat and bonemeal from slaughtered animals on a national basis and, it appeared from an environmental impact study, would also be used for incinerating certain industrial waste.
Its operation would necessarily entail the transport of slaughtered animals to, and ash export from, the incinerator.
Mr O'Brien claimed it was well known that incineration produced dioxins and other dangerous emissions which could create a risk to himan and equine health, reproductivity and athletic performance. He was concerned for his family and his immediate neighbours.
He believed that if an incinerator was permitted at Castleblake it would be inevitable that some owners would withdraw horses and think twice about sending others.
The impact on his business and career was potentially extremely serious.
Mr O'Brien claimed that he and local residents had had no prior notice of the intention to seek planning permission for an incinerator. He was extremely disappointed and frustrated by the manner in which the application was made, advertised and then processed and assessed by South Tipperary County Council.
He was gravely concerned that the proposal had been subjected to minimal and restricted scrutiny.
He alleged that a range of matters relating to environmental pollution had been excluded from the consideration of the county council in determining the suitability of Castleblake as a location.
While he and others had lodged an appeal against the planning permission, he and they believed such an appeal would not address the major defects in the decision- making process.