The 23-year-old Dublin man and 26-year-old German woman were among a group of Climate Camp protesters who gained access to the plant last Saturday morning. Eight other protesters chained themselves to the gates at the station.

The two defendants who entered the station also dropped a giant banner saying, 'Give Peat a Chance' from the station's roof and were subsequently arrested and charged with entering a building with intent to commit an offence. They were asked to make a €150 voluntary donation to the court poor box before being released on Saturday evening. The group were protesting against the burning of peat in power stations.

There was a large garda presence at the power station at Saturday morning's protest. A spokesperson from the Longford Gardai explained why the two defendants were arrested on the day. "The ESB contacted us at 8.30am to say that there was a large group of environmental activists in Lanesboro on Saturday morning so we rushed to the scene. When we arrived we found out that 10 demonstrators had been blocking employees from gaining access to the plant."

The spokesperson continued to say, "The two people who were arrested had climbed onto the roof of the building and entered the plant via a chute. They then entered an area where the conveyor belt that brings the peat to the burner was located where they pulled the stop chord on the belt and it was stopped for a time. When arrested they were found in the possession of a number of implements and they were then charged under Section 11 of the Criminal Justice Public Order Act."

Another man who took part in Saturday's protest in Lanesboro spoke to the Leader about the Climate Camp protest. Gerald Glynn, explained, "Our aim was to close down the station for the day to make a statement that these power stations should be closed for good. They are three times dirtier than coal per megawatt of power you get out of them. This station alone releases 700,000 tonnes of carbon per year."

In relation to the arrests made on the day Mr Glynn said: "Of course we don't want to see people getting arrested but we were guaranteed to hit the news when they are. The protest went brilliantly. We successfully shut down the power plant from the day – there was no smoke coming out of the plant's chimney when we left at 5pm."

THE ESB have said that they are reviewing security at their peat-burning power stations following the protests last week. Climate Camp Ireland activists also hung banners at a power station in Edenderry and from a water tower in Shannonbridge last week.