This article is from page 8 of the 2006-06-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
EAST Clare company, Finsa has succeeded in having strict new environmental controls eased that secures the 140 jobs at the plant.
Earlier this year, the EPA awarded a draft Integrated Prevention Pollution Control (IPC) license to the Spanish-owned Finsa Forest Products in Scariff that imposed tough new controls on the firm.
However, in an objection against conditions in the new licence, the company’s CEO, Virgilio Romero Suarez told the EPA that having studied the draft licence and discussed its contents “with our parent company, we have concluded that certain provisions will have serious implications for the continued viability of our company”.
Mr Suarez stated that the company “cannot sustain the imposition of environmental conditions that are not imposed on any of our competitors within the EU”.
Enterprise Ireland also come to the aid of the processing plant by also lodging an objection against conditions in the license, pointing out to the EPA that if the restrictions imposed are not lifted “it will impact negatively on the company’s competitiveness and threaten 140 jobs in Scariff”.
Any move to scale back operations would have a massive impact on the east Clare economy as Finsa’s most recent accounts show that it paid out €5 million in wages in 2004.
At the centre of the dispute between Finsa and the EPA was the agency’s insistence that from now on, it must not use any recycled material in its production process, including recycled materials from Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste.
In its objection, Finsa state that it began using recycled material in 1995 and currently it uses 35,000 tonnes of recycled material in its process “and this has become vitally important to the economic survival of our company”.
The company point out that if the condition is not modified it will cost the company €790,000 per annum – the company’s most recent accounts show that in 2004, it made a profit of €116,000 which followed the company making a loss of €1.82 million in 2003.
However, in its response to the Finsa submission, the EPA’s Technical Committee recommended no change due in part to the licensee “having a poor compliance record which does not inspire confidence”.
However, this was over-ruled by the Board of the EPA who stated that the recycled material could be used as a raw material, stating that it was satisfied that there would be no environmental impact.
Senator Timmy Dooley said: “Sanity has prevailed and I welcome the decision of the EPA and the efforts Enterprise Ireland has made in assisting Finsa. It is important that state agencies recognize the role of industry in local areas.”
The license issued follows a number of difficult months for Finsa after the EPA uncovered a series of environmental breaches at the facility as a result of two audits of the facility in the second half of last year.