Vol. 401 No. 4
109 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Marine if he will list the industrial concerns which are permitted to dump waste at sea under licence from his Department; the amount of dumping which is permitted; where the dumping is permitted; if his Department monitors the dumping; and if there are any plans to end this dumping.
110 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Marine if it is intended to introduce legislation to ban all dumping of industrial waste at sea.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 109 and 110 together.
At present, three Irish-based companies are authorised, by permits granted under the Dumping at Sea Act, 1981, to dump industrial waste at sea. The companies are obliged under conditions attached to their permits, to regularly monitor their wastes and to submit analysis and monitoring results to my Department. My Department also carries out spot checks on a regular basis. Studies of the Cork dump site, which receives 99 per cent of the total industrial waste dumped in Irish waters, were carried out in 1982 and 1988 and no adverse environmental impact from the wastes was identified.
The Government's environment action programme announced the Government decision to ban all dumping at sea of industrial wastes from 31 December 1995. This accords with the decision of the Oslo Commission, made in Dublin in June of last year, to cease the dumping of industrial waste in the North Sea by 31 December 1989 and in the rest of the Convention area by 31 December 1995 unless it could be shown that there were no practical alternatives for disposal on land and the wastes caused no harm to the marine environment.
