Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the timetable he has for a solution to be put in place to the pollution that is coming from a tailing pond (details supplied); the analysis he has carried out to come to the view that the proposed solution from the mining company involved is conceptually acceptable to him; the projected cost of this solution; and the entity which will pay that cost. [3683/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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The former mining company has acknowledged that it has a contractual liability to rehabilitate the tailings pond, among other sites. To this end, the most recent proposal for the rehabilitation works was lodged with the Department on 3 November 2004,and additional information sought by the Department was supplied on 17 January last. When the proposals have been assessed by the local community, North Tipperary County Council, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department and its consultants, the Department will submit to me a detailed report later this month setting out options for the rehabilitation works and recommendations for a way forward.

The specific views of the stakeholders will be included in that report, and I am glad to say that senior officials of the Department met the local community in Nenagh last Wednesday to get their views and a meeting with the local authority and the Environmental Protection Agency took place yesterday.

In reply to the specific questions, it is not possible to schedule a timetable for a proposed solution pending full consideration of the existing situation and options for a way forward; the mining company's proposed solution was accepted as being in line with conceptual designs prepared by the Department's consultants and published in March 2002; and the works at the tailings pond to be carried out by the mining company are expected to cost an estimated €1.5 million.