Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It has been confirmed that the Government is to go ahead with a €500 million regional sewage treatment plant at Clonshaugh. This is a project that has caused considerable concern, anxiety, fear and opposition across north Dublin. More than 700,000 people will allegedly be served by this treatment plant and a 26 km orbital sewer will reach the sea between Baldoyle and the Portmarnock estuary. Alarmingly, the treatment plant is only a secondary treatment plant in that the level of treatment will be at secondary and not tertiary level. The impact on farming and, in particular, on the coastline and on fisheries will be very significant given the fact that up to 1,000 litres of sewage will be pumped every second. As this sewage will not be fully treated, this will clearly have implications for the local environment and the area concerned.

I point out that when this issue came to the Upper House, Senator Darragh O'Brien raised it with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Brendan Howlin, who said Senator O'Brien had made very constructive points during the debate and went on to say: "I am giving an undertaking now to the Senator that I will have it investigated." He also made other points about the propensity of engineers to have big projects.

The Minister, Deputy James Reilly, has now supported the project. He thinks that because it is on a flight path, this renders it more supportable. Of course, he spoke out against it when there was potential for it to go to Rush and Lusk, and, true to form, he thought it would have a huge impact on local fisheries there, but obviously he thinks it will have no impact on local fisheries in Portmarnock or Baldoyle.

Some 12,000 residents formally lodged a complaint. The various organisations sought meetings with the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan, but were refused point-blank. Will the Taoiseach undertake to ensure, at a minimum, that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, meets the residents' organisations and associations to hear first-hand their concerns and anxieties and to have the issue debated? Second, will he undertake to ensure that the investigation the Minister, Deputy Howlin, spoke about in the Seanad will be followed through on and that a cost-benefit analysis will be carried out, as well as an investigation into the overall rationale and viability of the project?

The point I put to the Taoiseach is that 12,000 residents complained and formally lodged a complaint. The various organisations sought meetings with the Minister, Deputy Phil Hogan, but were refused point blank. Will the Taoiseach undertake, at a minimum, that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, would meet with the residents organisations and associations to hear first hand their concerns and anxieties and to have the issue debated? Second, will he undertake that the investigation the Minister, Deputy Howlin, spoke about the Seanad will be followed through on and that a cost-benefit analysis will be carried out as well as an investigation into the overall rationale and viability of the project at this stage?

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