{"id":546080,"date":"2026-07-12T15:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546080\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T15:56:08","slug":"ireland-should-not-be-pushed-by-eu-on-future-of-aughinish-alumina-plant-limerick-mayor-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546080\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland should not be \u2018pushed\u2019 by EU on future of Aughinish Alumina plant, Limerick mayor says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland should not be \u201cpushed\u201d into a decision on the future of the Aughinish Alumina plant by the European Union<\/a>, the mayor of Limerick has said.<\/p>\n

John Moran<\/a> has written to the Taoiseach<\/a> and other Ministers calling for a \u201cco-ordinated forum\u201d to be established in his office for planning the future of the operation, which is located outside the city on the Shannon estuary. <\/p>\n

An Irish Times investigation<\/a> earlier this year detailed how the plant was exporting vast amounts of raw material to smelters in Russia, which is sold to a company that supplies aluminium to Russian arms manufacturers. The Government is finalising an investigation<\/a> into the company\u2019s role in the shipments. <\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s This Week programme on Sunday, Moran said people in Limerick were not confident that the voice of workers at the plant, as well as suppliers, was being heard. <\/p>\n

He said the plant directly employs about 1,000 workers in the region and a further 2,000-3,000 jobs in the region were linked to it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the hard part, making sure that part of the equation is heard and we\u2019re not just, like, pushed into some decision by the European Union,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In recent days, the European Parliament voted in favour<\/a> of a non-binding motion to ban alumina exports to Russia. Such a step would seriously curtail the plant\u2019s business.<\/p>\n

Moran, a former secretary general at the Department of Finance, said the last time a \u201cbig decision\u201d was taken under \u201cEuropean pressure without the right facts, we regretted it in the bank guarantee\u201d. He has asked that workers, unions, management and the \u201cvoices of Limerick\u201d are heard at the table when the future of the plant is discussed.<\/p>\n

The Limerick refinery is owned by Russian metals giant Rusal, which Swedish tax authorities recently concluded remains under the control<\/a> of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska. <\/p>\n

Moran said the legislation under which his office operates makes it \u201cvery specifically the case\u201d that when important policy matters are being decided at the national level that affect Limerick, the mayor has to be consulted. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf he has to be consulted, then information has to be shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the substantive issue, the potential use of alumina in the Russian military supply chain, he said there was a \u201cbalance to be struck\u201d and there had been no \u201cinvasive supervision\u201d on where the exports were going.<\/p>\n

He said 50 per cent of the exports were going to make medical devices and other products Europe wants. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be knee-jerked into a situation that has such tremendous repercussions on people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Moran suggested some form of a buyout of shares, rather than nationalisation, could be considered. Based on his previous experience as a senior civil servant, he said his expectation was that the central Government must have been considering a scenario of nationalisation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have some calm, we need to work out what is the right answer for Ireland, what\u2019s the right answer for Ukraine, what\u2019s the right answer for Europe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier on The Week in Politics programme, Labour TD for Limerick City Conor Sheahan said he believed the plant should be nationalised. Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Mayo TD Rose Conway Walsh said jobs must be protected. <\/p>\n

Minister for Higher Education James Lawless, on the same programme, said the Government takes the issue \u201cextremely seriously\u201d but it would not become \u201cjudge and jury\u201d while the investigation, being undertaken by the Department of Enterprise, remained live. <\/p>\n

He said Ireland had supported sanctions on Russia and that alumina has not been included in any sanction package to date. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland should not be \u201cpushed\u201d into a decision on the future of the Aughinish Alumina plant by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[163884,2244,5148,61,60,8679,1396,43,3589],"class_list":["post-546080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-aughinish-alumina","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-moran","tag-limerick","tag-news","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}