I am glad to have this opportunity of being able to raise this issue. I intend to ask a number of serious questions and I hope the response of the Government will be satisfactory.
It is essential that the Government launch an international diplomatic offensive to bring to an end the wanton dumping of waste, both toxic and radioactive, in the waters around this country. I understand that a recent proposal of the Spanish authorities to burn toxic waste off the south-west coast of Ireland is to be refused by the Government but I am not assured that attempts to discourage this form of dumping are successful, and I am not so assured for two reasons.
First, there continue to be persistent reports of illegal dumping of such wastes into the seas off our coasts. Secondly, there was a very anaemic, lack lustre and unsatisfactory submission made by the Government to the Second International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea earlier this year. It was a submission which for some extraordinary reason received very little public attention in this country. There continue to be reports that there is widescale dumping of various forms of refuse, some toxic and some radioactive, into the seas around this country. Apparently, the Spanish intended to incinerate waste at a point some 300 nautical miles off our coast. Being in the course of the Gulf Stream this would have inevitably resulted in some of its repulsive spin-off being deposited at some time or another along the west coast. That is only one example of the international attitude towards Irish waters in recent years.
The Irish Sea is now the most radioactive stretch of water in the world. There are regular emissions from the Sellafield plant of contaminated water into the Irish Sea and, needless to say, this plant is the depository for refuse from all over the world. Reports regularly come through from various organisations, including the Irish Fishermen's Organisation, who should know a little about these things which indicate that the seas off the south west coast are the regular dumping ground of such refuse.
The Government on behalf of all the people of this country, with the unstinted and unqualified support of every party in this House, should say to everybody who is interested in listening and at every international forum possible that we are not interested in having anyone's refuse, toxic or radioactive, deposited in the seas off our coasts. I admit that this may be a little difficult to assert because we do a little bit of that ourselves but the Government should not be weak-kneed in their objections to it. Let me quote from the statement submitted by the Government to the Second International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea:
In relation to the disposal of wastes at sea, Ireland believes that for certain substances this option should be discontinued entirely bearing in mind the risks involved and the principle of precautionary action. In the case of other substances, disposal at sea may still be regarded as the best environmental option, taking account of the implications for other environmental media; prior authorisation and appropriate environmental monitoring is, of course, essential in these cases, with uniform emission standards and/or the environmental quality objective approach being used, as appropriate.
It is naive to think that such an approach could be monitored. To think that countries who employ shipping contractors to get rid of waste from their own doorsteps at all costs are going to be concerned about the fine print of the kind referred to is so naive as to be totally unreal. As a response to this issue it is inadequate. What is of even greater concern is the obvious implication in another part of that submission that the Government are out of tune with the wishes of the people and are not convinced that the seas around this country should not be used in this way. I refer to the following:
Ireland allows dumping at sea only where this option is considered environmentally acceptable and is the only practical solution available for disposing of the materials involved.
I suggest that dumping at sea is not acceptable under any circumstances as it betrays a Philistine attitude to the environment and a cavalier attitude to resources which we all hold dear, not just on our own behalf but on behalf of generations yet unborn. They are not ours to despoil or denigrate in any way. The attitude to which I have referred facilitates that kind of easy thinking. There is a responsibility on those who create waste to ensure that a mechanism of ridding such waste is provided. The statement also went on to state:
In the case of industrial waste and sewage sludge, every application to dump at sea must give details of the consideration given to alternative methods of disposal and each dump site is monitored to ensure that there are no harmful effects on the marine environment.
I would be grateful if the Minister of State could tell us the number of such applications which have been received by his Department and the nature of the monitoring. It is hard enough for us to monitor essential needs within the health services and other areas without pretending that on the high seas where we cannot deal with people marauding for fish, we are going to be able to deal with people who come like thieves in the night and dump their thrash. The statement went on to say:
In present circumstances, a cessation of sea dumping of those substances could lead to an increase in illegal discharges to the marine environment from land based sources...
How can the Minister explain that one-third of all toxic wastes created in our own society have no explainable destination at present? In the literature on this subject, there is ample evidence to indicate that the ultimate destination of something in the order of one-third of toxic waste created in our society is a mystery. Of course it is not a mystery to those of us who are out and about in the world; it is simply dumped into rivers, sewers, drains, coastal areas and anywhere that is far removed from the home base of the person who has generated that kind of obnoxious refuse.
Perhaps the most upsetting part of the submission was the statement: "In relation to incineration at sea", which is the precise subject of the Spanish application, "Ireland considers that, on the basis of the data presented to date, there is insufficient evidence either to permit, or to justify, the termination of this disposal option for the limited quantities and types of wastes involved." Leaving aside for a moment the impossibility of this Government or any Irish Government to be able to be specific about the types and nature of the wastes involved — we cannot even do that in the context of incineration in our own communities — I want to strongly state to the Minister that he and the Government are not representing public concern and the public view in this regard if he says that it is Government policy, as apparently it is according to this statement, that there is insufficient evidence to justify the termination of this disposal option. That is not what the public believe and it is not in accordance with the facts. The reason our coastal areas are being used by international conglomerates and other Governments to deposit their waste is because they know it is harmful and deleterious to their own communities and they do not want it near them. Apparently anything is good enough for a Government who are not willing to take a stand against this kind of international dumping.
I strongly suggest that the work of people such as the Irish Fishermen's Organisation, the various national and international conservation groups such as Greenpeace and others who have a very good track record in some of these areas and the work of many right-minded thinking people, along with the available literature and scientific evidence, is proof of there being an immediate need for the Government to address the problem of dumping and incineration at sea within the general precincts of this country. I include in that ambit any area within a range of hundreds of miles. Personally, I would go out further. It does not really matter whether it is the coast of Japan or the coast of Ireland that is involved, dumping at sea is obnoxious to all right-minded people. It is an offence to all of us when wastes, toxic and radioactive, are dumped into the seas. We are all citizens of one small planet and actions committed by any State or any Government in one part of it in this context have long-lasting effects and in some cases have genetic implications and certainly transcend the generations and the nationalities involved. It affects all of us because we are neighbours on this small planet.
Ireland in economic terms, specifically has, a marketing and an environmental edge. It is still perceived to be a green clean land despite our best efforts to undo some of those perceptions. Even from a selfish motive, which is not the one I predominantly advance, we should not succumb to the temptation to simply turn our backs on something and stay quite about it because we feel that somehow we will not be playing the international game. I am saying to the Minister there is nothing more important to the future of this country than the quality of our environment and the quality of our environment is being undermined by the ease with which this Government are facilitating the international attitude that it is all right to dump rubbish in Ireland. That attitude has to be addressed. The Minister will have the support of every Member in this House if he takes a hard stand against such a philistine and destructive philosophy.
I ask the Minister to formally commence a campaign of diplomatic offensive tactics to bring home to Governments all over the world that we are not to be the repository of the dirt of other nations, that we will simply not tolerate it, that we will raise objections at every conceivable diplomatic level and that we will work with other similar minded partners in Europe and around the world to ensure that these practices come to an end so that anyone who sees Ireland as a soft option in that regard will know that it is no longer the soft option it is now preceived to be.
I am particularly upset by the submission to the Conference on the Protection of the North Sea. Representing Government view, it is at best very weak-kneed and very half-baked. It in no way shows a trenchant attitude to environmental defence. It does not indicate the genuine concern that exists, the kind of concern that was voiced earlier this week by responsible doctors who told us precisely the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster or the kind of concern of many people about the fragile envelope that covers us environmentally. I ask the Minister to commence such a campaign, to seek the active support and co-operation of other parties in this House and to launch that campaign at every forum, nationally and internationally. It is simply intolerable that the Government, on behalf of the people, should allow it to be voiced abroad that in their view there is insufficient evidence to justify the termination of this disposal option. That is not acceptable. I say to the Minister, with absolute conviction and with the belief that 99 per cent of the people agree with my view on this, we want to say to people who are engaged in international despoliation that it is fundamentally wrong wherever it happens and, as far as we are concerned, we will not tolerate it.
The response to the Spanish incineration at sea proposal has been reported at third hand in the media and is not even the subject of what I would call a broadside from the Government. If it was not leaked, it certainly limped its way out of a Government Department. It is not the kind of response that is called for in these circumstances. This country and its immediate environment is not to be used in this way and we should not be apologetic or half-willed about it. According to last evening's Evening Press the Government are to refuse permission to the Spanish authorities to burn toxic waste of the south-west coast of Ireland. I want to know whether the Government have refused such permission already, whether they are going to refuse it, how that refusal mechanism is to be put in place and how it is to be insisted upon.
While I am aware that under the Oslo Convention there is a need to get permission, and presumably that permission will not be forthcoming, the truth is that the Spanish authorities and interests of various kinds have been engaged in pirating of one kind or another in the seas around our coast even though it is illegal. Indeed, the Minister present was one of the most vocal Members about this when in Opposition. Our mere abhorrence or objection formally to such a practice has not stopped it. I want to know what effective action the Government are going to take to stop this obnoxious proposal, to investigate fully the reports from organisations such as the IFO and others of serious dumpings in the seas around our coast and, above all, to communicate once and for all to governments around the world and to other international conglomerate interests that we are fed up of being used as the world's dumping ground, that it is going to stop and that we will take every measure necessary to ensure that it stops.
