Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I want to deal with the large-scale industrial activities. We received a report some months ago when we had the Department in about Aughinish in Limerick, and I know the EPA is a totally independent agency, but it has a responsibility in relation to integration, pollution control, and licences. We were told in relation to that report that work was done in July 2014 on getting a financial provision package of €28 million in place to cover clean up and things like that. That is the financial aspect, but there is a longstanding issue in relation to human health, and an investigation was done on that, which cost somewhere in the region of €5 million. That is going back some years. Essentially, there was concern about public health, and this is what I am coming to in relation to contingent liability and where the EPA's remit is. Some blood samples went missing, for example, and that is an outstanding issue. I visited the area in 2016 and I was quite appalled about what I heard from people there, including the burning of skin, cancers and things like that. Would the EPA have a role, for example, in advising the likes of the HSE, or is it the reverse in relation to whether or not it is just financial provision that is required, or is there a health component that the agency has a role in advising on, to avoid liabilities into the future, and to make sure this licence not only covers the clean-up and any subsequent activity, or if it ceases to trade that there would be sufficient funds to deal with that? Where does the health aspect come into that?