Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy correctly points out that water was pumped into the mines and that changed the whole dynamic. That is something my Department will be looking at.

Ireland has a mining heritage that extends back to the Bronze Age. It has occurred at hundreds of sites, the majority of which are not the legal responsibility of the State. The Department maintains an inventory of sites at which historical mining is known to have occurred, in compliance with Article 20 of extractive industries waste directive. There Department continues to monitor other major sites around the country. The site in Monaghan has a particular reason the collapse happened and it was because of the pumping in of water at a particular time which destabilised the ground. I agree with Deputy Dooley that we have to look at the monitoring regime in places like that where there are specific issues or if there is a material change to the activity that is going on.

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