Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I feel sorry for the Minister of State because she has been put into a position having clearly been briefed over a short space of time and is expected to answer detailed questions which the Minister should answer. All of us representatives from Cork have been involved in this case since the State took it over four or five years ago. Does the Minister of State not accept we received assurances years ago that there were no serious hazardous waste problems with this site, that people in Cobh and Ringaskiddy had nothing about which to worry? Now we are told in a newspaper story that the only work to establish what was happening at the site took place at surface level but anybody with a brain in his or her head knew the problem was underground, where waste material had been buried.

See this speech in context