Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 977: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will respond to Cobh town councillors and Cork county councillors regarding his undertaking to investigate a complaint by a former worker involved in the State sponsored clean up of the former Irish Steel plant at Haulbowline, County Cork. [39033/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I understand that this relates to a query raised at a meeting with Cobh Town Councillors, Passage West Town Councillors and Cork County Councillors held in Cobh Town Hall and asking whether the concrete foundations for a crematorium at Rocky Island were poured over hazardous dust waste stored on that island.

Rocky Island did not form part of the former Ispat site that transferred back to State hands from the liquidator in June 2003 and did not feature in any works undertaken by the State at Haulbowline since it reverted to State hands. My Department understands that Rocky Island was used as a secure temporary storage facility during the period in which the steel plant was in operation and also during a short period when still in the hands of the liquidator.

The following material, which was properly removed and disposed of, was known to have previously been stored temporarily on Rocky Island and my Department is unaware of Rocky Island being used for the storage of any other waste materials.

In 1990 the plant inadvertently melted a caesium-137 source that had been included in a consignment of scrap metal from Scotland. Residual radioactive dust in the fume extraction system was removed and bagged for disposal. For a time these bags were stored on the East Tip, prior to being removed to Rocky Island for safe storage under the auspices of the RPII. Eventually, disposal of this dust to the UK was carried out by Rolls-Royce Nuclear Engineering Services Ltd. The RPII then surveyed the Rocky Island caverns and confirmed that no external radiation levels above natural background levels were detected.

Following this incident, radiation detectors were installed to monitor in-coming scrap. Over the years these detected a small number of low-level radioactive items which, if the supplier could not be identified, were also consigned to Rocky Island, from where they were finally removed in 2004 and sent to the USA for decontamination/recycling. The RPII again surveyed the caverns and found only background levels of radiation.

Caster level gauges were used to control the level of liquid steel in the continuous casting moulds. At the time the plant closed in 2001 there were six of these gauges on site. These were initially dismantled and consigned to a secure area on Rocky Island. There was a requirement on the liquidator to dispose of them and they were finally removed early in 2004. Four old sources were returned to the original manufacturer in the USA and two newer sources were disposed of via the manufacturer's agent.