Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I thank the Minister for attending the Chamber to address this issue. This is the fourth occasion on which I have sought a reply to this matter. On the day the story broke, I asked a junior Minister to clarify this issue and I did not receive an adequate response. When the Minister was in the House last week, I asked about this matter and received no response. This evening I received a short reply to a parliamentary question I tabled in which the Minister stated, "Anecdotal evidence suggests inert slag material was employed for this purpose during the period when the steelworks was in commercial operation but my Department does not hold any records or information from this period". He further stated that since 2003 "no material has been removed from slag heaps to be used in road construction, or indeed any other activity".

This is surprising given that in an article the Irish Examiner on Thursday, 11 August 2005, Eoin English wrote:

Environmental engineers moved onto the site of the former Irish Steel factory on Haulbowline Island in Cobh, Co. Cork, yesterday to begin the largest industrial clean-up in the history of the State. Consultants working for Cork County Council removed over 80,000 tonnes of hazardous and radioactive materials from the site last year. However, thousands of tonnes of waste material still has to be removed.

Given Ernst & Young, the company engaged by the Minister, was on the site at the time, his response that no material was removed after 2003 is unusual. It is on record that at least 80,000 tonnes was removed. People living in the harbour region know mountains of this material were on the island, which are no longer there, and they want to know where they have been moved.

Between 1998 and 2002, Haulbowline supplied road resurfacing material to two contractors: Road Maintenance Services Limited and Road Binders Limited. Both companies have registered offices at Unit 1G, Maynooth Business Park, Maynooth, County Kildare. RMS also has a sub-office in the Mallow area. They are part of the Colas conglomerate, which has more than 500 companies operating with a budget of €10.7 billion in more than 40 countries. Those companies were engaged in this and they were operating on NRA contracts.

Furthermore, I have a letter dated 1998 from a D. Daly, chief environment officer of Cork County Council at the time, who states:

We are considering how the matter of slag reuse might be progressed ... Slag from iron and steel manufacture is an amber list waste under this regulation which means that approval to movements must be sought from local authorities concerned and the movement must be tracked by the relevant forms.

Was a licence granted to these companies, given a licence must be granted by the local authority? If so, the Minister can provide traceability about where the material went on road projects to the House. If no licences were granted, our concern increases.

There can be no ambiguity by the Minister or his Department about whether this material was moved. An anecdotal response in a parliamentary question is completely insufficient. I am asking him for the fourth time to clarify whether material was removed from Haulbowline for road building and to state where are those roads.

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