NORTHERN IRELAND is at risk of losing crucial research and development (RD) jobs to Donegal if a controversial new £100 million (€121.3 million) power plant is built in Co Antrim, according to local politicians.

Rose Energy, the company behind the proposed power plant, has received planning permission to develop a biomass-fuelled incineration plant at Glenavy. The plant will be fuelled by poultry bedding, meat and bone meal.

However, Thomas Burns, SDLP South Antrim MLA, believes the plant could jeopardise potential investment and “precious” jobs at nearby Randox Laboratories.

Mr Burns said he was worried Randox could switch key operations including RD from its Crumlin, Co Antrim, headquarters to its Dungloe facility in Donegal.

The clinical diagnostics company, which employs more than 650 people in the North, has repeatedly warned it will review its operations and growth plans for Co Antrim if the plant goes ahead.

Peter Fitzgerald, managing director of Randox Laboratories, said he was concerned the company’s science-based concerns about the impact the plant could have on its health diagnostic products had not been taken seriously.

Randox is worried about emissions from the proposed plant’s 80-metre stack which it claims will “spew out dioxins that present a clear and immediate danger to our highly sensitive manufacturing process”.

Rose Energy, a consortium of Northern Ireland-based firms including Moy Park, O’Kane Poultry and Glenfarm Holdings, said there would be no harmful emissions from the plant. “The plant will employ best available burning technology and supplement this with flue gas cleaning equipment to control emissions,” it stated.

Mr Burns said the 7,000 objections lodged against the power plant underlined the depth of feeling against the proposal.