James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy McGinley, who is deputising for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan. Maith thú for the excellent job you have done so far as the Minister of State with responsibility for the Gaeltacht and I hope you will continue in this role. I commend the Labour Party Senators, in particular Senators John Whelan and Denis Landy, for tabling this motion and their contributions earlier.
I also want to give a warm welcome to Pat and Nuala Geoghegan from Askeaton, County Limerick, to the House, a welcome which has not been extended to them by many State agencies. They, along with many other families in the area, have lived in the shadow of the Aughinish Alumina plant there for many years. There has often been an omertaamong public representatives when it comes to the pollution emanating from the plant. While there is a tacit acknowledgment by public representatives that pollution and poisoning has been taking place in County Limerick for many years, many of them have been afraid to speak out about it because of the implied threat to jobs in the area. I want jobs in my county as too many of my friends and relatives are living abroad. I do not want the health of people who voted for me, as well as those who never voted and who may never vote for me, to be put in jeopardy because of the need for jobs, however. Pat Geoghegan and the Irish Environmental Forum have fought tirelessly to bring the issues of harmful toxic emissions from Aughinish Alumina and elsewhere to the public arena. Along with others in the Askeaton area, they have maintained a very dignified, well-researched and well-documented campaign since 1997.
In that year, the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, began an investigation which took four years and cost £5 million, a bizarre length of time and cost for such an investigation. While the investigation was ongoing, the EPA granted an integrated pollution control licence to Aughinish Alumina, a point made in a Hot Pressarticle. I also challenge the mainstream media to look more into this matter. It seems investigative journalists do not want to touch this area. There is a sense in Askeaton of a massive State cover-up of the industrial poisoning occurring in the area.

This raises serious issues of a conflict of interest. The question needs to be asked as to who is policing the police. I will reference another example given by the Irish Environmental Forum regarding a complaint made to a Dr. Kelly about polluting premises which had an integrated pollution prevention and control, IPPC, licence. Dr. Kelly passed on the complaint for investigation. The reply showed the person who investigated the matter was the same inspector who recommended the known polluter for an IPPC licence ten years earlier, and the same person who supervised the premises for years as it continued to pollute and destroy the environment. This is not good enough. It is unacceptable. An outside investigator or independent ombudsman should be appointed to investigate possible breaches of the licence.
Section 15 of the Environment Protection Act 1992 Act states:

No action or other proceedings shall lie or be maintainable against the Agency or any body referred to in section 44 or 45 for the recovery of damages in respect of any injury to persons, damage to property or other loss alleged to have been caused or contributed to by a failure to perform or to comply with any of the functions conferred on the said Agency or body.

What is the EPA afraid of? If it is carrying out its role properly and investigating matters properly, why is there a need for immunity from prosecution? One of the Minister's predecessors, John Gormley, asked for a review of this. This review was done and the report, which issued in May 2011, stated the EPA blanket statutory immunity when carrying out its functions is difficult to justify in a modern context and should be revised. I believe it should be abolished. I challenge the Government to live up to commitments made in the programme for Government to provide an ombudsman for all statutory bodies. This is the gauntlet I lay down to the Minister and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. Get rid of the immunity. Why be afraid? Proper powers should be given to an outside body to investigate what are serious breaches of regulations.