Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I welcome the Minister of State and I thank him for addressing this important matter. This is not the first time I have raised this issue in the House. I raise it this evening because it is an urgent matter. We use the term "urgent need" lightly, but I have placed this issue on the Adjournment because it is urgent that the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government make a decision on the current plans before it on the company involved, Mogul of Ireland, and its obligation under clause K of the mining lease. Clause K of the mining lease, as it applies to Mogul of Ireland, is the only legal instrument available to the Department and to the State to require the company to rehabilitate those sites in the Silvermines area for which it is responsible.

The sites in question are the cause of major pollution. That is not my opinion; it has been found to be the case by an inter-agency group headed by the Department of Agriculture and Food. It has also been found to be the case by SRK Consultants which reported in 2002. Since then, the Department has engaged in close consultation and negotiation with Mogul of Ireland to come up with a satisfactory plan for the community which would ensure that the sites would be rehabilitated in a sustainable fashion. This plan would have to ensure that dust would no longer blow from 147 acres of tailings pond in the Silvermines area, containing toxic materials including heavy metals. Monitors around the tailings pond show dust with elevated lead levels and other dangerous heavy metals blowing around the Silvermines area.

Other sites are causing difficulty such as the old drums on the side of the hill, which were abandoned by the company when mining ceased in the 1980s. The areas known as the Garryard stockpile and the Garryard lagoon have both been identified as highly toxic. None of these have been managed in a satisfactory manner.

The Statute of Limitations on clause K runs out next Tuesday, 30 November 2004 and we have a very serious situation on our hands. The latest plan submitted by the company is far from satisfactory. The EPA, the county council, the technical advisers of the Gortmore environmental action group and the SRK consultants have all stated this to be the case. I am concerned that there might be a possibility that the Department will discuss this plan with the company and that the plan might proceed.

I call on the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to end this charade with Mogul of Ireland. He must accept that this company will never carry out this rehabilitation in a satisfactory manner or in a manner that has the confidence of the community. I call on him to initiate proceedings against the company for what is clearly a failure to rehabilitate these sites. The company has failed to live up to its responsibility to the local community and has caused a situation where there are a number of polluted sites. It has continued to accept a situation where there are 147 acres in an eroded state causing major pollution in the Silvermines area and causing toxic dust to be blown around the area.

I call on the Department to initiate proceedings against Mogul of Ireland and to ensure that this job of rehabilitation is given to some agency that is ready to implement a plan as soon as possible. We know that waste permits and waste licences will be needed and that the whole framework of environmental legislation will have to kick into place before this can happen. There is a major concern about what will happen in the community now that clause K is running out and no satisfactory plan has been developed. Who will ensure that this community can live in a safe and clean environment after so many years of living with pollution?