Ms Laura Burke:

There are a couple of things there. I will address the health issue first and then go back to deal with the existing licence. Aughinish Alumina started production in 1983 and has been licensed by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, since 1998 under the Environmental Protection Agency Act. There was a multi-agency investigation in the 1990s. It had commenced prior to the EPA being established and concluded in February 1995. That multi-agency investigation was led by the then Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and included Teagasc, the then Mid-Western Health Board and the EPA. It covered all health and environmental aspects. That investigation concluded there was no evidence that environmental pollution contributed to an increased incidence of animal disease or unusual human health patterns. I want to be clear that there was that report. Since then there has also been an EU pilot case with regard to this site. That case was opened in 2011 and closed in 2014.

On the Deputy's question on how the health and environment aspects interlink, when the EPA licenses facilities the HSE is a statutory consultee of the agency and gives advice to the agency on our licence applications. In addition, we do modelling on air quality against standards, for example, and when a facility is up and running we then do monitoring. There is a combination there looking at health. The EPA also has a health advisory committee, which was established in 2011. We also had very strong engagement with the HSE and health boards prior to that. The advisory committee also gives the agency advice on health. The HSE is a consultee specifically and site by site and was also involved in that previous multi-site investigation previously.

On the financial provision aspect, we get extensive legal and financial expertise, as well as our own technical expertise, to ensure that the moneys set aside will cover whatever sums of money are required for the closure of a site.