LAGAN CEMENT, the republic’s third-biggest supplier of cement, is researching “alternative” methods of fuelling the furnaces at its controversial factory near Kinnegad in Co Meath.

Jude Lagan, a director of the company, said last week that the incineration of meat and bonemeal (MBM) is one of the options being considered by the company.

“We are currently researching the use of alternative fuels and meat and bonemeal would be classed as an alternative fuel,” said Lagan. He refused to comment on whether the company would be applying for a licence from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to incinerate animal by-products.

“We are a responsible organisation and we want to bring down our CO2 emissions in line with the Kyoto protocol. Alternative fuels would help us do that,” he said.

Several other businesses have considered the incineration of MBM in recent years but on each occasion have met with fierce opposition from local groups.

The most high-profile case involved plans by National By-Products, a Tipperary meat- rendering company, to operate a MBM incineration plant in Tipperary. The plans were dropped in 2003 after a High Court action taken by the horse-trainer Aidan O’Brien and backed by John Magnier, theCoolmore stud owner. They claimed that pollution from the plant would contaminate the surrounding land, including O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stables and Coolmore.

College Proteins, the Meath-based animal-rendering company, also considered applying for a MBM-incineration licence in 2003 but it too dropped its plans. Edenderry Power, the Offaly-based subsidiary of Eon, a German electricity company, is currently trying to obtain a licence, but has attracted the wrath of local environmental groups.

Quinn Cement, part of the businessman Sean Quinn’s empire, was also reported to be considering this move in 2002.

In 2000 Quinn donated IR£30,000 (€38,000) to a local residents’ campaign opposed to the construction of the Lagan Cement plant in Kinnegad which was completed in 2002. A High Court judge described Quinn’s actions as being directed at a competitor in “a cynical, calculated and unscrupulous fashion”.

MBM incineration was originally mooted five years ago as a means of disposing of BSE- infected cow carcasses, but faced stiff political opposition. Currently, no Irish companies are licensed by the EPA to incinerate animal by-products.