The private consortium which has secured planning permission to build a power station in the midlands says the only thing delaying the project from going ahead is the type of licence it has been granted.
An Bord Pleanála has granted permission for a 350 megawatt gas-fired power station to be built at Lumcloon near Cloghan, Co Offaly. But Lumcloon Energy says the Commission for Energy Regulation has granted a licence to operate only a 100mw plant.
The group says that, although it could go ahead at this size, the plant would not be as efficient. It is in talks with the energy regulator about the issue.
John Gallagher of Lumcloon Energy said the issue was something that the Minister for Energy, Eamon Ryan, might be able to address. He said Lumcloon Energy hoped the first sod would be turned on the plant at the end of this year or the start of 2011.
He added that it was the company's priority to ensure that a high percentage of the 500 jobs it would create at the construction stage would be local. The proposed new station is on the site of the old ESB plant in Ferbane in Co Offaly.
