A planning application for the State's first human crematorium outside Dublin has been lodged with South Tipperary County Council.
The backers are two local businessmen, Mr Louis and Mr David Ronan, and a Co Kerry funeral director, Mr Donal O'Connor.
The €2 million crematorium, if approved, is to be located on a four-acre site at Mocklerstown, Co Tipperary, and will include a chapel or "spiritual space" to accommodate up to 70 people.
There would also be parking for 35 cars in what is described as a mature parkland setting.
The application envisages five cremations per day, with the greater volume of business coming from undertakers in the southern counties.
Currently all cremations within the State are carried out either in Dublin or near Bray, Co Wicklow.
The Tipperary crematorium proponents argue that this puts an extra burden on those organising a funeral and that such a facility should be available outside the Dublin area, particularly in the southern half of the State.
The principals also argue that with 20 per cent of funerals in the Dublin area now involving cremation, the numbers seeking the service in the south would grow once the facility became available.
The Ronan family is well known in the south Tipperary area.
Last year a proposal backed by Mr Louis Ronan to build an incinerator was withdrawn after strenuous opposition from the local community and the racehorse owner, Mr John Magnier.
The incinerator was to be developed by National By-Products and was intended to incinerate meat and bone meal.
However, after a long-running campaign of opposition, the Ronan family said concern at community divisions on the issue was behind the family's decision to abandon the project.
The horse trainer, Mr Aidan O'Brien, speaking on behalf of Ballydoyle Racing Stables, Coolmore and Castle Stud farms, said: "We are sorry if the Ronan family felt personally targeted during a campaign which was intense and at times heated."
Mr O'Brien said the family were to be congratulated on their decision.
Efforts to contact Mr O'Brien yesterday were unsuccessful, but a spokesman for the Ronan family emphasised that the locations of the proposed incinerator and the crematorium were not the same.
Insisting that the proposals were "completely separate" and that they had been put forward by separate companies for separate locations, the spokesman said that the crematorium proposal was being put forward simply in the context of providing a service which was not available outside Dublin.
"This is a long-term investment.
"At present undertakers from all over Leinster have to travel to Glasnevin, Newlands Cross or Mount Jerome. This also adds to the distress of the next-of-kin who wish to be present at the cremation ceremony."
