John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

I thank the Deputies for putting their questions. Deputy Morgan asked about people going on site. My officials have gone on site. Many people have gone on site. If they think that there is some sort of problem with dust, I am sure they will take precautions. The people who are carrying out the analysis, for example, in the next five weeks will be going on site and it is up to those individuals to make that judgment. On the face of it, given the monitoring results it looks as if there is no potential difficulty with dust — that is what we are being told.

Deputy Morgan asked about the Naval Service personnel. They have their own medical services. Deputy Morgan asked that personnel be examined. That is a matter for the Defence Forces. I do not have any input into that whatsoever.

On the points raised by Deputy Michael Ahern, of course I will make all of the reports available to all of the Deputies in the area. My Government colleagues have expressed the concern of the residents in the areas they represent and I take on board all of those comments.

Deputy Ahern stated that he wanted different consultants used on this occasion. The reason that these consultants have been hired is exactly because they have done a previous study. We discussed this issue yesterday evening with the residents, who have got their own experts. Deputy Lynch alluded to the fact that these people have expertise and that is undoubtedly the case. Many of them have scientific and legal expertise. It was their belief that what there ought to be is a peer review of the existing report and, indeed, the new report. I am happy to do that again to ensure that the methodology that is being used is correct and that it stands up to the best scientific scrutiny. That is the way we are proceeding. It is an open and transparent way and it is sound from an ecological and scientific point of view.

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