Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Glanbia and other dairy processors are facing this significant difficulty at the moment. Feasibility studies have been done on routes to market and on acquiring suitable partners on the Continent for developing this product. A huge amount of money is invested. As I said in my original statement, eight weeks is usually the timeframe within which a judicial review should be heard after An Bord Pleanála's decision. We are now at 21 weeks. We cannot allow the legal process to delay a decision on this project. It has been cleared by An Bord Pleanála. It is absolutely urgent that a strict timeframe is adhered to for a decision to be reached. I fully respect the rights of citizens to make objections, but I object when the apparatus of the system is used to delay a decision unnecessarily and I believe that is what is happening here. We see clearly that it is nearly three times the permitted timeframe. This is causing huge concern for people in my constituency and in the south east. This opportunity is knocking on the doors now for these processors. I accept the Minister of State's bona fides, and those of Bord Bia, in what he is doing to establish markets and for the huge ongoing efforts to establish markets and to diversify from the British market, upon which we have depended for centuries. When we have an opportunity, we have to seize it.

Obviously, the proper environmental standards must be adhered to. I am absolutely sure that is the case with An Bord Pleanála's decision. At farm level, farmers recognise fully that sustainable food production is the way forward and that we have to meet the climate change challenges that are in front of us. Farmers will meet that, and our processing industry is also meeting that head on. This will be a modern plant, just diversifying product, which is exactly what the doctor ordered for the challenges we face with Brexit. Some 40,000 tonnes of cheese production is hugely significant. I urge the Government to make sure that the tightest possible timeframe is employed to ensure a decision is reached and that this investment can proceed.

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