Garda officers at the scene of the bus burnt out at the Quinn Therm plant
THE cross-border grouping that is lobbying for the reinstatement of Sean Quinn said it feared that lives would be lost if attacks on property relating to the Quinn group, now Aventas continues.
Concerned Irish Citizens has made an urgent plea for dialogue following the attempted arson attack on the group’s had offices.
It condemned this and all acts of vandalism against Aventas.
A fuel tanker, carrying a payload of 1,500 litres, was reversed into the building by two individuals, its cab set alight.
The attackers sped off in a waiting car. However, the flames were extinguished before they could reach the tanker itself.
This was the 33rd carried out against the company since May, 2011, shortly after the Quinn Group was taken over. And, it is the most serious.
While the PSNI, and the garda, are saying very little, they are treating this latest incident very seriously.
The Dublin-based ‘Sunday Independent’ claimed those behind the attack are former Provisional IRA members in the border area.
A spokesman for Aventas, told the Herald the building ‘could have gone up in a fireball’.
Patricia Gilheaney, the Ballinamore-based secretary of Concerned Irish Citizens said her organisation were, ‘very troubled’ by events.
“We ask that facilitation be made for all parties to get round the table to resolve this situation before lives are lost, and people in the nearby area are driven to distraction.”
Ms Gilheaney said her group, which comprises business people north and south, condemned this latest act of vandalism directed against the company.
Speculation is rife as to who is behind these attacks.
The ‘Sunday World’ claimed in April this year that the PSNI and the Garda had drawn up a list of five former IRA members who, they believe, are behind the campaign against the former Quinn Group.
In a more recent edition, it stated they now had identified around 12 people involved, one of whom is described as, ‘a respectable businessman’ with no criminal record.
The article also claimed that the Aventas Group was forking out several million pounds annually on security, with 30 personnel employed as minders to management.
Last week, a PSNI spokesman stated: “The police investigation is ongoing, and it would be inappropriate to comment on media speculation. No inference should be drawn from this.”
Aventas, in a statement, said: “We are aware that all of these criminal activities are orchestrated by a minority group and their sponsors outside our business, but in the local community.”
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