The reason I asked to have this question raised on the Adjournment was because it is a matter of special and immediate importance to the people living in the Glengarriff area. I think the most important function that can be performed here tonight is to induce the Minister to instigate an immediate investigation under his Department to ascertain the source of the spillage. This is not the first spillage in Bantry Bay and it is important that definite and positive action be taken immediately because if this type of spillage continues we shall have an orgy of destruction involving both marine life and the amenities in the area.
I am sure the Minister has read in the newspaper that the beaches and coves in the Glengarriff area are very badly affected and local people say that this has been the worst spillage in the history of spillages in Bantry Bay. One could try to blame various people but I shall not do that because I have not sufficient facts at my disposal to lay the blame at anybody's door. We always come up against the problem in a developing area of the delicate balance between employment and conservation and it is important that we as legislators, together with the industrialists, should endeavour to build all pollution control methods into all our planning, physical and economic; in other words, ensure the rational exploitation of our resources. We all want growth but growth which is needless and not good for the area is of no advantage. I would describe it as luxurious and frivolous growth. We must also reject false measurements of mere quantity and boldly learn to measure the good against the needless and the bad. This demands constant vigilance by whatever group are responsible for this monitoring.
We, as Members of this Parliament, have a common and vital interest in maintaining unpolluted oceans, living inland waters and an unimpaired atmosphere. We should strive for a sound ecological balance. Every Member, I think, is aware of the present stale of affairs in the Mediterranean which is entirely due to the pollution of that sea by oil. It is time that we earnestly tackled the business of locating the source, not only of the present spillage in Bantry Bay but of other spillages that have occurred there from time to time and of ensuring that never again will these outrages be repeated.
I think it should be also mandatory that purification equipment be installed in all industrial enterprises in such sensitive areas as Glengarriff and Bantry. I know you cannot compare this type of spillage with the disaster of the Torrey Canyon; yet small spills cause more pollution in the aggregate than major ones. Our long coastline along which a huge tonnage of ships sails every year is very important to us both from the tourist point of view and the industrial point of view. Oil pollution of Irish waters could become a major threat to our economy, to fish and bird life in the area.
When we talk of the oil spillage that has occurred in the Glengarriff area we are talking of the area of highest amenity where there is what could reasonably be described, I suppose, as the most important sub-tropical garden in the world, an area on Garnish Island where 60,000 tourists visit every year, an area where the rarest plants and flowers can be seen. We must also consider the number of people who are getting gainful employment through being involved in the tourist business in the Glengarriff area. Their livelihood could very well be put in jeopardy if we are not vigilant and pretty severe in this House in dealing with the people causing this pollution. Glengarriff is unique in its tropical climate, its rare shrubs and trees and its continuing emphasis on the tourist industry. People there depend mainly on tourists coming into the area for their livelihood and not only are they affected but a considerable number of fishermen are also involved.
In today's Irish Times I read of a cleaning operation where detergents were being spread on the oil by high-powered fire-fighting equipment. We do not need to be chemical experts to realise that the use of these highly potent detergents on oil can cause very serious pollution of marine life. In some cases, in fact, marine life has become extinct because of the use of these detergents. I am not absolutely convinced that we are relieving the situation in any way by pouring on detergents.
I think it was Hemingway who said that a continent ages quickly once we come—he was talking about Africa— and where you have development you have a certain amount of ageing and a certain amount of destruction. I should be the last to say that we should not have industrial development in that area or deprive the people there of gainful employment; they would be far better if employed there than if they had to emigrate to Coventry, London or Birmingham to make a living. Yet, we cannot have development at any cost. We must be very conscious of the fact that we have relatively unpolluted water in the seas around us and we must preserve that. This is a very important heritage and it would be very remiss of us if we did not ensure that it was passed on just as pure as when we got it.
I spoke about the Mediterranean Sea: it could more aptly be called the Dead Sea because there is absolutely no vitality in that sea. The vitality of any sea is measured by the amount of life in it and if this vitality is killed by the use of this type of detergent on the oils, it is the fishermen who are going to suffer and suffer considerably.
I was trying to work out how this could have occurred and I was going back over some articles in magazines and books, and I find that 30 years ago British shipbuilders agreed that they would not dump any petrol product less than 50 miles from the coast and other countries in Europe followed suit, but these measures proved ineffectual because marine currents carried them back again to the coast, even though they were deposited far out to sea, and also because of the extension of the oil business. After the second world war, pollution of the sea reached a point which caused international concern. Most of these products came from oil tankers transporting crude oil. After the contents are discharged, the tankers are loaded with water to serve as ballast but they still contain oil products which mix with the water and are eventually cast into the sea when the tankers are emptied of the water. Even after this a sticky mass remains in the cargo tanks. It solidifies and cannot be emptied when the cargo is discharged. The sludge which fills tanks and obstructs pipes has to be treated with steam and hot water under pressure to liquify it and it is then poured into the sea.
A further source of pollution is water from various leaks which become charged with grease, oil and fuels before being dumped into the sea and I think that our legislation is not severe enough on the type of operation I have described, namely, the emptying of the ballast. This is the operation that causes the thick, tar-like substance which we sometimes see on the seashore. Not alone is this destructive but it is also most foul and evil-smelling and causes considerable annoyance to the people who have to come in contact with it so that we here should be endeavouring to ensure that we do everything possible to make it as costly as we can, to make the penalties as severe as we can, to ensure that people do not take these sorts of liberties.
I know that in the best organised circles accidents will occur. In this particular case it is alleged that there were 150 gallons spilled on the sea but my information from the locals is that it would seem to be much more. This would be considered minor enough if it occurred in an ordinary area, but of course, as we all know, Glengarriff and Garnish Island are not ordinary areas. I have already pointed out that we must ensure that especially in these high amenity areas no mistake is allowed to occur and that the penalties following such mistakes are so vast as to ensure that human error does not even come into it. We have as well the plight of some of our fishermen when they go out fishing-and this is not confined to the results of spillage in Bantry Bay; it affects more than Bantry Bay and can affect 30 or 40 miles of coastlineand find their nets completely spoiled and made useless because tar and solidified oil gets into them and rots them. As you can appreciate, we have a two-fold attack here. We have an attack on the tourist business and an attack on the livelihood of fishermen in the area because of somebody's carelessness. How can we here honestly pass vast sums of money for ecology purposes, for conservation and preservation, if we are not going to appoint an inspectorate which will be constantly vigilant and constantly monitoring these sensitive areas? I do not know what the cost involved would be and I do not know even how this type of operation would be conducted. All I know is that we must with all due haste get going on this because if we do not, we will find ourselves in the position of having a few minor spillages every week, with maybe the odd major one. This cannot go on for an indefinite period so we must ask the Minister now to call a halt to this type of operation to ensure that we do not have any recurrence of what happened in Bantry last week, to ensure that these visitors we have coming here can see Ireland as we would like them to see it and not have our beaches and our rocks and our seas covered with this desperate-looking tar-like substance.
