A bar chart detailing complaints made against the Masonite wood processing plant in Leitrim sits on manager Jim Hoey's desk.
Objections to noise and odours coming from the plant have fallen significantly in recent months but the company, which was found guilty in court three weeks ago of breaching its pollution-control licence, has still some way to go before gaining the trust of the local community.
The issue of the huge 15-acre plant, clearly visible from the main N4 road on the banks of the Shannon with its tall steel chimneys sending a continuous plume of smoke into the sky, has been divisive. Some people living close to the Drumsna plant remain unconvinced by assurances both from Mr Hoey and the Environmental Protection Agency that it poses no health risk.
Masonite, a subsidiary of a giant US corporation, is now the biggest employer in a county desperate for jobs and economic development. There are 280 people on a pay-roll worth £8 million annually; 30 more jobs were recently announced. Government ministers have visited and praised the £90 million plant.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, was there yesterday, praising its onsite safety record and the GAA county board was happy to accept a three-year sponsorship deal from the company.
In the tiny village of Drumsna and surrounding areas, however, some locals are finding it difficult to welcome Masonite with such open arms. It is seen as both an eyesore and a threat to their peaceful and pollution-free environment.
A campaign group of people from Annaduff, Jamestown and Kilmore was formed in January six months after the plant went into production. Some 200 peop le had attended a public meeting then to discuss concerns about it. Most of the 20-strong organising committee are farmers.
"We are not against Masonite or jobs, but we defend our right to protect our environment, and most people would support our aims, even people who are working in the plant. We just want a clean environment and for Masonite to work within its licence," says spokesman Joseph O'Beirne, a local farmer.
After an initial controversy about the location of the giant plant in such a rural setting, planning permission was granted and the EPA issued Masonite with an integrated pollution control licence allowing it to go into operation.
The company has now admitted breaching this licence. Court action was taken by the EPA early this year because of odours coming from the plant.
Locals had complained of sore throats, sick stomachs and chest problems from the strong smell arising from the use of linseed oil in the company's production of door facings. Mr O'Beirne says farmers had often to stop working in the fields and go indoors and close windows.
At Carrick-on-Shannon district court last month, a judge found the facts proven against the company, but after Mr Hoey explained that a new production process had been developed to eliminate the use of linseed oil, the case was adjourned until December 9th.
This new process was used during two of the four weeks in October, which Mr Hoey says ac counts for the fall in complaints. The use of linseed oil has now been stopped and the offensive putty-like smell was gone from the plant environs this week.
There was also an earlier court action over noise levels taken by a local couple. The judge recognised that Masonite had taken steps to reduce the noise levels and accepted an undertaking that it would be in compliance with its licence from August of this year.
"The two major issues, noise and odour, are behind us now. We recognised them and worked with the EPA to put programmes of action in place, and we have delivered on the results," says Mr Hoey.
The campaign group questions why such problems ever arose when they were promised a "state-of-the-art" factory. "They may have developed a new system now, but people around here feel they have been used as guinea pigs," says another member of the concerned citizens' group, Bernard Donohue.
According to Mr Hoey, there is always "a share of issues" associated with every new factory. "I have yet to see a plant where you come in and press a button and it works perfectly," he adds. The EPA says Masonite has spent some £1 million on equipment to reduce noise.
Mr Hoey also accepts that there were three "dust spills" at the plant, which occurred when a tank had to be opened for cleaning. It was redesigned and such an incident has not occurred since January, he says.
In a separate incident, a large tank used for treating waste water before it is pumped into the Shannon had to be taken out of use after it became displaced and moved 60 cm towards the surface of the water. Mr Hoey says this had no effect on the water going into the river. Work, with the agreement of the EPA, will begin next week to have the tank anchored into bedrock.
Up to now the plant has had only one of two production lines open. Mr Hoey says he now has a sufficient "level of confidence" to start the second line early in the new year. Mr O'Beirne fears more problems will arise when the plant doubles its current output. The second line cannot open until the EPA gives its approval.
Members of the campaign group say that while linseed oil and its associated pungent odour have been removed from the production process, their fundamental concern lies in the fact that chemicals, including formaldehyde, are used in the treatment of the wood. With the new process, a form of urea formaldehyde is used.
EPA spokesman Mr Dara Lynott says readings of formaldehyde emissions from the plant are well within the limits set down in the licence. These are based on international standards and Mr Lynott says the company can not go above these limits regardless of what new process is introduced. The concerned citizens' group wants studies to be carried out on the long term effects of such emissions on their environment.
The Masonite issue has undoubtedly been divisive among the small community around Drumsna. A number of pubs and shops have become associated with one side of the divide or the other. Mr Hoey says he has done everything possible to address the fears of locals, but he has angered them by putting the names of those who made complaints against the company on the plant notice board.
Mr O'Beirne says this was seen as an attempt to intimidate members of their group, who have neighbours working in the plant, but Mr Hoey says the practice was part of the company's policy of openness, though it was stopped six months ago.
Views on Masonite vary greatly among people living close to it. Tommy Burke, who lives less than a mile away, says he was 100 per cent in favour of it but he has also been "100 per cent annoyed" by the smell from the plant.
"I take a walk by the canal bank every day, but in the early stages the odour coming from Masonite prevented me from going for a walk. Even one evening last week I had to put my hand over my mouth as I walked."
Ms Maura Ward, who lives directly in front of the plant, says she has confidence in the company and in the EPA. Her son, one of a family of seven, used to worked in the US and is now back in Leitrim thanks to Masonite.
"They must be the most monitored company in Ireland. I open the windows every morning and it has never bothered me. Before Masonite was built, there was only a forest there, but trees don't put food on your plate."
Her views are shared by many others. One mother of teenage children comments that far from being an eyesore, she loves the way the 24-hour-a-day plant "lights up the sky at night". Tourists cruising on the Shannon are said to be less enamoured by the sight of the plant - this part of Leitrim in now regarded by some as an industrial zone. However, Masonite cannot be blamed for the State's planning process. "We were led here," Mr Hoey says. Meanwhile Mr O'Beirne says he's determined to keep Masonite under close scrutiny.