Incinerator plan near stud farm scrapped

The long-running dispute between Coolmore Stud and National By-Products over the development of a meat and bonemeal incinerator near the Co Tipperary stud is over.

The Ronan family, which controls National By-Products, has undertaken to withdraw its application to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for an integrated pollution control licence for the incinerator. It will also withdraw its planning application.

Leading horse trainer Mr Aidan O'Brien, who runs the Ballydoyle racing stables, and millionaire racing enthusiast Mr John Magnier, of Coolmore and Castle Hyde studs, had threatened to take their business abroad if the incinerator went ahead.

Now they have agreed to drop an action for nuisance against the Ronan's rendering business.

The agreement between the parties was finalised yesterday. It makes no mention of monetary compensation for either side.

A meat and bonemeal incinerator was potentially a profitable business as the State currently spends about €50 million a year exporting such material.

Yesterday's agreement provides for each side to carry their own legal costs. While current legal fees are estimated at about €1 million to each party, a full judicial review hearing, likely to be conducted over a period of weeks in about two years' time, would have greatly added to this bill.

The outcome of the judicial review could have been appealed by either side to the European Court. Sources close to the dispute said last night that new treatments for meat and bonemeal and a changing market have made the potential for an incinerator less certain.

National By-Products obtained planning approval last May to operate a burner to treat meat and bonemeal at its rendering plant in the village of Rosegreen, near Cashel.

A subsequent oral hearing ordered by Bord Pleanála was halted when a local group calling itself South Tipperary Anti- Incineration Campaign sought judicial review of the proceedings in the High Court. Mr Aidan O'Brien lent his name to the proceedings and the legal action was funded by Mr Magnier's Coolmore/Castle Hyde interests.

The case was due for mention in the High Court last month but an adjournment for two months was sought by agreement between the parties. This action will now be dropped.

The application to the EPA detailed materials which can be processed in the facility, the emissions standards and the monitoring regime at the plant.

Around 20,000 people had signed petitions objecting to the development in the area known as the Golden Vale. The outcome was last night being presented as a victory for Mr Magnier and Mr O'Brien who vigorously opposed the plant.

Mr Magnier, in his early 50s, is one of Ireland's wealthiest men and has been described as "easily the most powerful and compelling personality in the Irish horse industry". He runs one of the world's top stallion operations, centred on his Coolmore Stud in Co Tipperary.

Along with his father-in-law Mr Vincent O'Brien and the English businessman Mr Robert Sangster, Mr Magnier hatched the plan to buy yearlings in America and turn them into sires in Ireland where stallion income remains tax free.

The result initially was a string of champions that included The Minstrel, Storm Bird and Golden Fleece. Since Mr Magnier's installation of Aidan O'Brien into the Ballydoyle training centre in 1995, the flow of ultra-valuable bloodstock has, if anything, increased.