John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Deputy is right in pointing out that I met the residents. I made all the information available very rapidly. If the Deputy assesses the situation, he will find that, without disparaging previous Ministers, I did more about this matter in a very short time than previous Administrations. The reports that have been made available are in the Library, as the Deputy knows. People made much of the fact that there were five previous reports. They are all available in the Library and are all on CD.

My Department took responsibility for this site in 2003. The Deputy is asking me now to take responsibility for sites all over this country. There may well be such sites elsewhere, but they are not my responsibility. I can imagine that many of our old mines could pose difficulties with remediation, but they are not the responsibility of my Department. As much as the Deputy would like me to have responsibility for many things, I am not responsible for those sites.

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