Rathcore quarry blasting concerns

An Enfield councillor who lives in the Rathcore area raised concerns about blasting at the local quarry at the February meeting of Trim Municipal District Council saying his home had literally shook from the blast the day before.

Cllr Padraig Coffey said his house is over the 500m limit to get advance notice of blasting but that his daughter was at home and said “everything in the place shook”. He asked the council to investigate.

“My daughter was at home and everything in the place shook, now I want to know can the council investigate what amount of blast or capacity was it when it done that. There are people on the opposite side of the quarry that felt it as well.

“The notice only went to those within 500m of the actual blast but if you were in my home yesterday, it was unbelievable.” He said there were other people in the vicinity who had felt it and said one man who would be in and out of quarries driving trucks said he had “never witnessed the like of it.”

Cllr Coffey queried what the conditions or parameters were that would allow for such a blast and asked for clarity on it.

“I want it noted at the meeting and I want an answer. If you were in my home yesterday, it was unbelieveable,” he said.

The quarry he was referring to was Kilsaran's quarry at Rathcore. A planning application for the continued use of the quarry together with an extension to it and deepening of the quarry was granted permission by Meath County Council last year. This decision was subsequently appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála in April last year who have not yet ruled on the appeal.