An Bord Pleanála has granted an oral hearing in relation to South Tipperary County Council's decision to give planning permission for a highly controversial proposed incinerator that will dispose of animal waste.
The board's decision, announced yesterday, has been welcomed by opponents of the incinerator as hearings have rarely been granted by the board.
There have been fewer than half a dozen such hearings in south Tipperary. No date has been set for the hearing.
Earlier this year South Tipperary County Council granted National By-Products permission to construct a meat and bone meal incinerator near the south Tipperary village of Rosegreen, deep in the heart of racehorse training and breeding territory.
The decision to grant National By-Products planning permission to construct an incinerator caused widespread protest.
Hundreds of people objected to the decision, including the Ballydoyle-based racing trainer, Mr Aidan O'Brien.
Welcoming the decision, the chairperson of the South Tipperary Anti-Incineration Campaign (STAC), Mr Seamus Hayes, said that this was a terrific development.
"One of the major concerns among people in Tipperary was the lack of transparency in the planning process due to executive decisions being made behind closed doors." He said that this hearing would give all sides an opportunity to put their cases.
"The 20,000 people in South Tipperary who have signed our petition will finally have their voices heard.
"From every aspect - health, environment, economic - it will be seen that this incinerator is proposed by the wrong people, for the wrong place and it is the wrong process," he said.
A spokesman for National By-Products said the decision was not that surprising considering the level of controversy there had been about the project.