I thank you, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter on the Adjournment. It arises out of questions put by other Deputies and by me today to the Minister for Local Government in connection with the probability of dumping at sea by a Danish firm. My question was to ask the Minister for Local Government what action, if any, he has taken to ensure that chemicals being dumped at sea by a Danish firm will not pollute or destroy living matter within Irish fishery limits. I also asked him if he would make a general statement in the matter.
One does not raise matters on the Adjournment lightly, but in view of the reply of the Minister for Finance, I understand on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in view of the sketchy reply he gave, I am raising this matter now. There were too many questions left unanswered in the Minister's reply when the Private Notice Questions were answered after Question Time proper today. For instance, there is a commercial firm, obviously with the permission of the Danish Government, about to dump certain chemicals some 200 miles off our southern coast, and I am asking the Minister to whom did the Danish Government bring this request, to whose attention did the Danish Government bring the request in connection with the dumping of these chemicals. Did, for instance, the Danish Government apply to the Irish Government for permission to dump the chemicals off our coast — I accept they are international waters. Will the Irish Government supervise the dumping in conjunction with the Danish Government, and do the Irish Government intend to send a representative to ensure the proper supervision of the dumping off our coast?
The Minister in his reply to the Private Notice Questions said that full details concerning the waste to be dumped and the dumping site were received from the Danish authorities on 21st July. This information—I stress the word "information"— the Minister said has been studied by experts in the Departments of Agriculture and Fisheries, Health, Local Government and Transport and Power.
This is information obviously provided by the Danish firm to their own Government and passed on to our diplomatic representative in Denmark and subsequently passed on by the Danish authorities to the Irish authorities here. This is information only — it is not a sample of the actual deleterious matter to be dumped. I believe this dumping may take place either tomorrow or the next day. I also wish to know from the Minister why did the Irish Government not receive chemical samples, rather than the information to which the Minister referred, from this commercial firm.
Many other questions arise. Why, for instance, if the substance is so harmless, did the firm not receive permission from their own Government to dump this matter in waters not too distant from the Danish coastline? Did they receive permission from us or did they have any approach from us in connection with the dumping of the substances mentioned? Later in reply to supplementaries the Minister stated quite categorically that in regard to the chemical substances:
I understand there are 20 different chemicals in relation to this particular substance, most of which are not in any way potentially dangerous.
This, to me, presumes that some of the chemicals making up the matter are in fact dangerous. The Minister said "most of which are not in any way potentially dangerous". This is not a good enough reply, with the greatest respect. The Minister also said that the experts who examined the information — the information, mind, not the chemicals — had concluded that the cargo in question and the conditions applying to its dumping are satisfactory and that the dumping will not adversely affect Irish fisheries. I am indebted to a report by a Mr. Dick Grogan in The Irish Times today of the Killybegs Fisheries Association meeting. The members of that body catch £1 million worth of fish each year. They passed a resolution during the weekend condemning the dumping and calling on the Government to do all in their power to prevent it.
My information is, arising out of this article in The Irish Times, that the dumping site is near a major spawning ground for mackerel which swim up the West and the East coasts of Ireland. So much for the Minister's rather uninformed assurance in connection with potential damage to Irish fisheries. I do not think it is good enough for the Minister to come into this House and give this sketchy information in relation to a matter of such great importance.
Will the Minister clarify in his reply now the suggestion that the Danes are beginning a six-month programme of dumping and that this is the first shot in that programme? These are some of the questions the Minister must answer. Another question which should cause concern to the House in relation to this whole operation is that although the officials in the various Departments are doing their duty — I am in no way being critical of them — in relation to the information received was there any outside agency, any outside independent Irish scientist approached in relation to the chemicals to be dumped? I do not wish to underrate the experts in the various Departments mentioned by the Minister in his reply but I think the opinion of outside experts should have been consulted. I would feel far more at ease, and so would the nation, if this had been done.
According to the report, the chemicals involved include cyanide, formic acid, aniline, sulphonomide and alcohol. Some of these are clearly benign and represent no threat but there is a very important crunch point: it is said that Danish scientists themselves believe that far too little information is available about the long-term effects of other constituents in these chemicals on fish and marine organisms. In this connection, The Irish Times article concludes:
It is the accumulative effect of the multiple dumping rather than any single one that alarms marine scientists and environmentalists most.
This is the beginning of a six month programme of dumping and I submit the Irish Government have an obligation to protest at every given opportunity in the international arena at these dumpings. I ask the Minister and the Government to have a re-think, as it were, about our adherence to the Oslo Convention which the Minister quoted in the course of his reply to the Private Notice Questions.
This is far too serious and it is a matter in relation to which the Minister's reply was unsatisfactory. He was dilatory to say the least of it. Even at this late stage I would appeal to him to get the Government to request the Danish Government to postpone the dumping until we have ascertained without equivocation the effects of these chemicals on marine life.
In the recent past, during Question Time, I have raised many questions relating to the possibility of setting up a Department of the Environment, a Department specifically in charge of problems relating to pollution of the air and water and all other areas of pollution. Pollution is becoming a source of grave concern to the nation. I call on the Government to set up a Department of the Environment to control pollution at home and to ensure proper pollution control of the international environment.
The Minister for Finance is acting here on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Affairs who seems to spend quite a lot of his time — in fairness to him, on behalf of the country — outside the country. Perhaps at this late stage the Minister for Finance could ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy FitzGerald, to contact the Danish Government and ask them to review the whole situation in relation to the dumping of these chemicals at the place proposed. If it is too late, I would ask him to pursue the matter further so as to ensure that this six-month programme is reviewed.
The article I have referred to is very comprehensive. The information contained in it is the only information this Dáil has or that we as public representatives have in relation to this problem. I have quoted extensively from it. I am grateful for the information contained in it. If it is too late to stop the proposed dumping tomorrow, the next day or Friday, at least we should have a conference as a matter of urgency with the Danish Government and ask them to review the proposed six month dumping programme. If the chemicals are not as dangerous, as it is suggested they are not, it seems extraordinary that the Danish Government do not dump their own chemicals on their own front doorstep.
I have been requested to let another Deputy of this party in to make his contribution arising out of a question that he raised with the Minister for Finance but I do want to say one final word. The Minister said that I was irresponsible in suggesting that there was collusion between our Government and the Danish Government. Certainly, if there was not collusion, there was co-operation by silence.
