asked the Minister for the Marine the latest information available to his Department, on the impact on fish and marine life in Dublin Bay of the discharge of sewage into the bay; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Bay Marine Life.
7.
A report of the impact on marine life of the dumping of sewage sludge by Dublin Corporation has recently been provided to my Department. The report indicates that further research is necessary to establish if the dumping has deleterious effects on marine life.
My Department propose, therefore, to commission a further study of the dump site in question this summer. The dump site in question is approximately two miles east of Howth Head.
I should like to thank the Minister for his response but I suggest to him that it does not deal entirely with the subject matter of the question, the discharge of sewage. I forgive the Minister for not appreciating that Dublin Corporation, Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire Corporation dump untreated sewage at several points around the city. That is the first major problem we have to confront. The Minister was correct in stating that sewage sludge is taken by boat from the treatment plant at Ringsend out to sea. Is the Minister aware that all the sewage from the north of the city is discharged raw off Howth Head? That appears to have been overlooked.
I asked for brevity.
Does the Minister agree that it is undesirable that raw sewage from a city the size of Dublin is dumped into an amenity like Dublin Bay? Will the Minister take action in regard to this?
The Deputy has made that point.
This did not start in the last year or so. Previous Ministers for the Environment, and Local Government, have had responsibility for this as far back as the early seventies. The Minister for the Environment was responsible for monitoring discharges from land based sources but the Department of the Marine are particularly anxious about the effect of this on marine life. A report carried out by UCG, commissioned as far back as 1983 by the Department of Communications, is available and we continue to monitor the position. This year our monitoring will involve a reconnaissance survey using the most modern remote technology, remote environmental monitoring of the sea floor. That is a high tech optical coring device that photographs the upper 20 centimetres of the sea floor. Information obtained from this survey will give the Department of the Marine up to date information on the impact of the dumping. It will facilitate further decision making on the licensing of the sludge dumping operation. That work commences this summer in four areas, the one referred to by the Deputy, one off the south coast and two others off the east coast. The report should be available in September. I will be asking the Department of the Environment to identify further sites for monitoring. If the reports about the seriousness of this pollution are correct I do not think we should wait too long before asking the Department of the Environment to identify further sites. We will keep in touch with that Department in regard to this. I fully appreciate the Deputy's anxiety because we are just as anxious.
I would ask that the survey should not just concentrate on the sludge site which, for tidal reasons, is not the primary cause of problems for people in the Howth or Dublin area generally but should look at the discharge of raw sewage and its impact on fish and so on.
That would be a matter for another Minister, as the Deputy knows.
We will draw it to the attention of the Minister.