A new protest group is campaigning against a proposed medical waste storage and transfer facility at Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary.
The group, Concerned Residents of Carrick-on-Suir (CROCOS), delivered some 3,000 letters of objection to the town hall last week. It says it will fight the plans by "all means available" and claims the facility would be sited in a residential area which includes schools.
"Carrick residents just cannot believe that anyone in their right mind would put the children and the people of Carrick-on-Suir at such a risk when there are so many alternatives of siting these waste facilities outside densely populated areas," said Ms Patricia O'Shea, in a CROCOS statement.
"Residents are extremely fearful of any accident or incident involving this waste and, with some recent serious accidents on this stretch of road, they have just cause for their concerns."
The application to run the facility at the Mill River Business Park has been made by the healthcare waste management company Sterile Technologies Ireland Ltd (STI).
The chairman of Carrick Urban District Council, Mr Liam Dwyer, said STI has agreed to delay putting the proposal before the council's planning committee on condition that CROCOS meet representatives from the company. The objectors have not yet accepted the offer as it is understood the group would prefer to meet the owners of the Mill River Business Park first.
Council members have already met representatives from STI and have had a tour of a similar facility in Dublin.
According to the planning application, the facility could provide storage for over 1,500 tonnes of waste a year and be capable of operating 24 hours a day. STI stresses in its application that it does not plan to keep the plant open 24 hours a day, but would be flexible enough to receive deliveries at any time.
It also says there would be only six small trucks and very few larger vehicles arriving at the plant daily.
The healthcare waste storage and transfer station is the first of a two-stage plan for Carrick-on-Suir. STI also intends to submit plans for a waste-treatment plant on another site in the town at Ballylynch.
This plant would be capable of recycling 90 per cent of the healthcare waste received, reducing the need to use landfill sites or incinerators.