Leading racehorse trainer Aidan O'Brien has said that a proposed waste-treatment plant in south Tipperary "would be a great disaster" and would mean "the end" for the famous John Magnier-owned Ballydoyle stables.
Mr O'Brien was speaking in Clonmel yesterday as he arrived with his wife, Anne-Marie, for the opening session of a Bord Pleanála oral hearing about the plan.
Paul Barrett, project manager for Green Organics Energy Limited, the company hoping to build the facility, described it as a "bio-energy plant" which would be "safe, efficient, clean and green".
He said it presented no danger to the horse industry and would be in the national interest.
Mr O'Brien said: "We train elite equine athletes in Ballydoyle", and the "two industries could not work together".
If the plant was built, "it would be the end of Ballydoyle" which would be "a disaster because everyone knows the investment involved . . . over the years".
Anne-Marie O'Brien, a member of South Tipperary for Clean Industry, a local campaign group opposed to the plant, said she would be "appalled" if it went ahead.
Mr Magnier, the billionaire businessman who owns Coolmore Stud and Ballydoyle, did not attend the hearing. A Coolmore spokesman said: "We don't envisage this development going ahead because of the strength of the opposition from the community and the county council, therefore the question [of Ballydoyle closing] doesn't arise."
