Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to respond to this important matter, namely, the urgent need for the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to expedite clause K of the State mining lease which would require the lessee, Mogul Ireland, to remediate a number of mining related sites at Silvermines outside Nenagh in County Tipperary.

There have been mining operations in the area in question since Famine times. The earliest mining took place in the pre-Christian era and the scars are a legacy in the area. Unfortunately, pollution is one of the main legacies of this activity and toxic pollution in particular. In 1982, Mogul Ireland completed mining in the Silvermines area and, in so doing, walked away from an area consisting of 147 acres of tailings, the residue from the mining of ore.

In less than two years, the 147 acres of tailings had completely dried out because it consisted of residues which had once been of a liquid form. This caused clouds of black dust to blow from the tailings on to the N7. They were quite visible in 1982 and 1983. It took the local community, who were so badly affected by the matter, almost two years to get Mogul Ireland to rehabilitate the site to the extent of covering it with soil and compost and then growing grass on it. Until recently, that has been a fairly successful enterprise in that it stopped the dust blow and the grass has regenerated itself on an annual basis.

In recent years, a considerable amount of erosion has taken place around the tailings area and the site generally. In 1999, the EPA was alerted by members of the community and me when animals were seen straying around the surface of the tailings pond. The EPA became involved immediately and expedited a report in a short period. This referred to the tailings area as a perpetual risk to human health and the environment. In conjunction with North Tipperary County Council, it instituted a programme of action to ensure no animals would in future stray on to the tailings, that the site was secured and that the whole issue of the remediation of the tailings was again raised.