Irish Cement plc has been given the right to emit a further 37,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) under a revised plan for greenhouse gas emissions trading, published yesterday.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given more than 100 major emitters of CO2 a week to respond to the revised allocations, after which they will become final, a spokesman said.
He emphasised that there had been no increase in the overall allocation of 65 million tonnes for existing plants - including power stations - submitted to the European Commission and approved last July.
A "set-aside" of 1 million tonnes has been reserved for new entrants and a further 446,000 tonnes for combined heat and power (CHP) plants. With a further 500,000 tonnes for auction, the total comes to 67 million tonnes.
The revised National Allocation Plan (NAP) has been drawn up to comply with the EU's Emissions Trading Directive and applies to the period 2005-2007 - in other words, the years before the Kyoto Protocol takes full effect.
The EU directive specifies that companies be issued with a cap on the amount of CO2 they are allowed to emit. Those which breach the cap must either reduce their emissions or purchase allowances to meet their requirements.
"It is possible that some companies, particularly in the power-generation sector, may have to purchase some additional allowances to meet their emissions during this first phase of the scheme," the EPA said.
The cost of compliance will be significant. According to the agency, "penalties of €40 per tonne of CO2 are in place for those who do not hold allowances equal to their emissions at the end of each year".
The EPA said that it had re-jigged the NAP figures for cement works, power plants and others as a result of submissions received from the public and industry and after consultation with the Minister for the Environment, Mr Roche.
In the cement sector, which produces one tonne of CO2 for every tonne of traditional Portland cement it produces, Irish Cement is the major beneficiary - largely at the expense of the Seán Quinn Group, based in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan.
Quinn's allocation has been reduced by 27,000 tonnes annually, while Irish Cement's is up by 33,000 tonnes for its Platin works near Drogheda, Co Louth, and by a further 4,000 tonnes for its plant at Mungret in Limerick. However, these changes are marginal in the context of CO2 emissions from the cement sector. Emissions from Platin amount to nearly 1.3 million tonnes a year, while current emissions from Mungret come to 813,000 tonnes.
In the case of the State's 16 power stations, there have been no significant changes in the allocations made last year, which gave the coal-fired Moneypoint plant only 4.4 million tonnes compared with its current output of 5.9 million tonnes. As a result, the ESB will have to purchase credits from power companies in other parts of the EU whose emissions are below their allocated thresholds. The costs of such transactions are expected to be passed on to electricity consumers.
However, the EPA said that some of this gap could be made up by substituting CHP and renewable sources such as wind power for a portion of the ESB's output, so that it could avoid having to purchase credits in the emissions trading market.
All of the companies affected by the revised allocations have been given until noon next Tuesday to point out any numerical errors. "The NAP will be adopted then and there is no legal provision to change it after that," its spokesman said.
