Claremorris meeting

Opposition to Claremorris power station

Austin Garvin

THE people of Claremorris and surrounding areas turned out in huge numbers last night (Monday) in the local town hall to voice their stern opposition to plans by a company to build a 100 mega watt gas turbine station in the south Mayo town.
Mountside Properties Ltd, with an address at 27 North Road, Monaghan, submitted the application to construct the power station at the Claremorris Business Park in Boherduff. The company propose to construct a 100mw open cycle gas turbine power station with gas turbine hall 8.75m high, a maintenance bay, exhaust stack 20m high, and air vent 20m high.
However, the message went out loud and clear from the meeting, which was attended by up to 500 people and was chaired by Claremorris businessman John Killeen of Claremorris Chamber of Commerce and his two colleagues, Liam Smyth and Martin Cunnane, that the development is not wanted in Claremorris.
Speakers felt the development would bring no benefits to the town and would be visually obstrusive, could have possible health implications for those living in close proximity and could sterilise development land in a hugely valuable pocket of land adjacent to the N5.
Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony, Fianna Fáil Senator John Carty and local councillors Tom Connolly and Michael Carty were all in attendance to hear the local opposition to the proposal. Both councillors told the meeting that they had held a meeting with County Manager, Des Mahon, before the meeting and expressed to him the real concern on the ground in Claremorris in relation to the application.
“Because of the time of year, a lot of the residents of the area were not even aware that this application had been lodged but as you can see from the crowd here tonight, everyone is now up to speed and they quite simply do not see how this power station can benefit the town,” said Cllr Connolly.
The organisers of the meeting also emphasised that the closing date for receipt of objections from concerned members of the public is this Thursday, January 10.
The application was lodged with the Council on December 7 through Tallaght-based agent, Eamonn Devery and the Monaghan company. A decision is due by February 2, 2008. In addition, the company intend to construct an air cooler, water cooler, power control module, main transformer, auxiliary transformer, bunded fuel oil tank 900m3, raw water tank 600m3, water treatment module, treated water tank 600m3, firewater module, tanker unloading area, office/workshop, access road and associated site development works.