Farmer appeals planning permission for Intel's €3.53bn facility in Co Kildare
A farmer has appealed Kildare County Council’s approval for Intel’s planned new $4bn (€3.6bn) facility at its Leixlip plant to An Bord Pleanála.
The appeals board confirmed that Kildare farmer Thomas Reid has lodged the only third party appeal concerning the new application by the US semiconductor microchip giant for an extended and revised manufacturing fabrication facility, known as a 'Fab'.
Mr Reid has long been a thorn in the side of the US multinational in the planning arena and this is now the seventh Intel application he has brought before An Bord Pleanála since 2012.
Intel has, itself, lodged a first party appeal against one condition attached to the planning permission granted by Kildare County Council last month.
Decisions on the appeals are expected in October.
The 10-year permission to Intel will provide a windfall of €9.7m in development contributions for Kildare County Council - if work on the project proceeds.
The planning permission comes three years after Intel secured planning permission for the first phase of the 'Fab' facility valued at $4bn.
In total, the two planning permissions represent an $8bn investment which will employ 6,000 construction workers at peak and 1,600 full time jobs on completion.
Consultants for Intel have told the Council that the company has already invested $12.5bn on its site at Leixlip.
The Council last month gave the plan the go-ahead after concluding that the proposal accords with national, regional and local planning policy and would not be injurious to the general amenity of the area and would be in proper accordance with the planning and sustainable development of the area.
However, Mr Reid has now appealed the decision and followed up on his initial two page hand-written objection lodged with Kildare County Council against the new application.
In his objection, Mr Reid claimed that the planning application is contrary to the proper planning and development of the area.
Mr Reid unsuccessfully opposed the $4bn first phase of the 'Fab' plan in 2017. In 2015, he won a court case against the IDA, which ruled that a compulsory purchase order for Mr Reid’s 72-acre farm adjacent to the Intel campus had been in excess of the IDA’s powers.
The costs associated with the case left the IDA with a bill of nearly €1.4m.
