A Tipperary Mine receives a boost with €5 million Government grant

The former Lisheen mine site in north Tipperary is intended to be developed into a national hub for green energy with a €5 million grant from the government’s Just Transition Fund.

Thurles TD, Jackie Cahill, has said that Just Transition Funding for the Lisheen Bioeconomy Site “will put the site back on an even keel and see investment and employment coming back into the area.”

Cahill along with the Chairperson of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee welcomed the news for the Lisheen Bioeconomy Campus.

Deputy Cahill said he has been working with numerous stakeholders over the last number of years to see the site put back on on the forefront as work progresses to make the Lisheen Campus the centre of advancements for the circular economy.

Deputy Cahill said: “I have been working for several years now on the Lisheen site to ensure that we get employment and investment back into the area. We faced considerable difficulties when Tirlán decided not to progress with the biorefinery on site a number of years ago. At the time, some thought this would be the death knell of the biorefinery project in Lisheen, but I am glad to say that this is most definitely not the case.

“Thanks to the assistance of Cllr Seamus Hanafin, Tipperary County Council have fully supported our work to get the Lisheen Bioeconomy Campus back on track. Both Centenary Co-op and Tipperary County Council have invested in the Bioeconomy Campus in Lisheen and late last year I announced that I had secured €1million from the Department of Agriculture for the campus in Lisheen. This work and investment has allowed the Bioeconomy Campus to continue to the next stage and the next Government level investment.

“The Government TD continued to state that he had secured visits by both the Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue TD and the then-Taoiseach, Micheál Martin TD to the site last year and that this helped garner Government-level support for Deputy Cahill’s work on this project.”

Deputy Cahill continued by saying: “We are expecting very positive news for the Lisheen site under the upcoming round of Just Transition funding. This will ensure a very positive future from the Lisheen Bioeconomy Campus and something I have worked for many years to secure.

“This substantial level of funding, when officially announced by the Government, will put the Lisheen site back on an even-keel. This funding will firmly cement Lisheen as the Bioeconomy Centre of Ireland and will play a leading role in the circular economy that we must develop going forward.”

“This region depends hugely on the agri-food industry and it is essential that technology is developed to allow waste from the industry to be used to produce sustainable energy. The development of the circular economy and the utilisation of waste products from agriculture will be vital in meeting our carbon reduction targets in this country.

“I am delighted, as a Government TD to secure this investment for the area. This will result in employment being brought back into the area and it will assist with meeting our carbon reduction targets.”

In November 2022, Deputy Cahill said he secured a € 1million investment from the Department of Agriculture in the Lisheen Bioeconomy Campus. Earlier in the same week, Deputy Cahill also confirmed that planning permission had been granted for the Naringtech BioProducts Campus, also located in Lisheen, and which is expected bring at least 30 jobs to the area when completed.

The former Lisheen lead and zinc mine in County Tipperary occupied a land area of 455 hectares. Mining activity was concluded at the end of 2015, after 17 years of operation, with the implementation of a mine closure and aftercare plan. In 2015 Lisheen was identified as a European Model Demonstrator location. This determined that Lisheen was one of six European top locations for bio-economy investments.

These designations were spearheaded by the Irish Bioeconomy Foundation (IBF) who have their headquarters at Lisheen. The lands were subsequently cleared of mining infrastructure in 2016 and 2017 with a view to creating a new vision for the lands as a national bio-economy campus.

This vision for Lisheen is underpinned by strong support at EU, national, regional and local level, through the actions and achievements of the Irish Bio Economy Foundation (IBF), Tipperary County Council and their partners and through investment in the site, said Brian Beck, Director of Services, Economic, Community and Rural Development with Tipperary County Council.

Following Monday’s meeting of Thurles Municipal District, Independent County Councillor Michéal Lowry said the Council has agreed to buy the old engineering building and 10 acres of land which will make the Council a real stakeholder and property owner in the former mining site.

 That will give the Council scope to go to the next phase, which will be to develop about 10,000 sqm of buildings and incubation hubs to develop the bio-economy it has been reported.