Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The greater Dublin drainage project is being directed by Fingal County Council to plan and build a new massive regional sewerage plant in north Dublin that will treat a population equivalent to 350,000 in 2020, moving up to perhaps 700,000 or more up to 2040.

Under phase 2 of the project, rural Clonshaugh, on the city boundary in Dublin north east, has been selected as one of three emerging preferred site options for this massive new sewerage plant, along with Annsbrook and Newtown Corduff near Lusk. I understand that all three project options will be considered further in detail before one emerging preferred option is decided on and a planning application is made to An Bord Pleanála.

The inclusion of Clonshaugh as one of three emerging preferred sites has rightly been described as cynical and outrageous by residents right across my constituency, including Clonshaugh, Newbury, Riverside, Carragh Park, Priorswood, Darndale, Belcamp, Belmaine, Clare Hall, Airfield, Donaghmeade, Clongriffen, the coast, Baldoyle itself and Portmarnock. It would go against all natural justice to locate this waste water treatment plant one field north of the Fingal-Dublin border rather than in the heart of Fingal county, which is the region which the plant will service.

In my submissions to phases 1 and 2 of the consultation programme on this sewage plant I argued strongly that it would be unjustifiable to select the Clonshaugh site, in particular because of the size of the proposed plant and its certain negative affects on the huge adjacent population. Disturbingly, no socioeconomic impact survey was undertaken by Jacobs Tobin of the negative impacts on the almost 25,000-30,000 people who will be living directly adjacent to or only metres away from this monstrous sewage plant, if located in Clonshaugh. There also appears to have been no comparative analysis and appropriate weighting given to the population densities at each of the original nine sites. Clearly, the high population density around Clonshaugh will be particularly negatively affected if the plant is to go ahead at that location.

Given the range of planning challenges still facing the north fringe of Dublin, of which I know the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, is well aware, including Priory Hall and the pyrite disaster, it would be catastrophic to locate this major new sewage and waste water plant in the north fringe region, which is where Clonshaugh is located. Such a decision would wreck the two local authority plans for the region, which are currently being prepared by Dublin City Council. In addition to its unique planning difficulties, the north fringe is also characterised by its unique environment. The core coastal area and highly protected amenity coastal district, the proposed outfall for this plan, would be at Baldoyle-Portmarnock, which is a polder. The possible location, therefore, proposes a significant environmental threat to the velvet strand from Portmarnock to Baldoyle Bay and on to the Malahide Estuary. This area is a European conservation area and Natura 2000 site. Placing a sewage outfall there would be an incredible breach of EU environmental policy. The proposed site location is also in line with the lower flight path of the main runway of Dublin Airport - it is barely outside of the Airport's inner safety zone - and the clear danger of gas emissions to aviation aside, locating a massive sewage plant in the middle of a district which has already been designated as part of the lands of the critical airport economic zone would severely hamper the economic development of the region. In this regard, the Minister of State will be aware of the plans for a high-tech industrial hub in this region, which could potentially facilitate up to 10,000 jobs. I learned yesterday from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, that exactly that number of people in the adjoining parishes are unemployed, a figure which is increasing daily. It would be contemptible to jeopardise these long-standing plans by locating a massive regional sewage plant at the location.

Local businesses such as the successful Bewley's Dublin Airport Hotel will be less than 500 metres from the Clonshaugh site. Mr. Kieran O'Donovan, manager of that hotel, has already spoken publicly of the great damage this project could do to its business. It would devastate a number of long-standing rural and new urban communities and recreational facilities from Clonshaugh-Belcamp eastwards to Portmarnock and destroy long-standing Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council plans for the region in terms of a diversion of the Malahide Road.

The feeling in my constituency is that this is being dumped on the edge of a vulnerable lower income residential district despite there being more appropriate locations, from a service and environmental point of view, in the heart of Fingal county.

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