Mattie McGrath, the leader of the Rural Independents Group, has called for the withdrawal of state funding to An Taisce, the environmental lobby groupThe taoiseach has thrown his weight behind growing opposition to a legal campaign by An Taisce, the environmental lobby group, to stop a €140 million dairy plant in Co Kilkenny. Micheál Martin yesterday told the Dail that the planned Glanbia/Royal A-Ware cheese plant at Bellview on the Waterford/Kilkenny border was of “immense economic importance” to the region and the “dairy industry and the expansion of that sector”. SponsoredMartin was responding to Mattie McGrath, the leader of the Rural Independents Group (RIG), who called on the government to withdraw up to €3.5 million a year in state funding to the environmental lobby group whose members regularly object to planning applications for one-off rural housing and forestry felling licences. The taoiseach said: “[The Bellview plant] has gone

Source: The Times May 11, 2021 23:00 UTC