Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her response. I have no doubt, based on the information she has provided to the House tonight, that there may well be a comprehensive and detailed analysis and evaluation of applications and that information is sought from relevant Departments regarding such applications. I would expect in this case of a proposed meat plant, and I do not expect the Minister to discuss this case specifically, that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine would have been consulted. I ask the Minister to make available to me, if possible, the various reports that were sought by the committee, what it sought, what was received and what was contained in what it received.

I have seen documentation pertaining to this case from officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and from the Chinese embassy and Bord Bia. Bord Bia says, for example, that this proposal is particularly opportune given that Ireland became the first European country to gain access to China earlier in 2018. Since then six Irish beef plants have been approved to export there by the Chinese veterinary authorities and Bord Bia says it is hoped that additional factories will become listed in the near future. This application, which I expect and hope will receive planning permission in the coming days, is exclusively dedicated and committed to serve the Asian market and others, which Bord Bia acknowledges it totally supports. Such a massive investment in my constituency, to the tune of €40 million, will provide 250 construction jobs and 150 jobs in its operation. I welcome the fact that Amazon created 1,000 jobs here recently, but this is the equivalent of that in a constituency or region that has been subject to huge job losses in recent times. I earnestly ask the Minister to make available the relevant documents pertaining to this application, in private if necessary, so we can scrutinise and analyse whether there was fair and due process in this case.

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