I thank Deputy Harte and Deputy McDaid for their contributions. I fully share their concern in relation to the discharge of this substance into Lough Foyle last Tuesday.
My Department were not officially informed by Du Pont of the spillage on Tuesday, 6 October into Lough Foyle from its factory in Derry. I understand that the Northern Ireland authorities were not themselves informed of the incident until Friday morning. My Department were alerted by the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture on Friday afternoon, but the full significance and scale of the incident did not become apparent until late on Friday night.
As a result of urgent inquiries by my Department on foot of the report, the following steps were taken on the morning of Saturday, 10 October: As a precautionary measure, harvesting of shellfish on the Donegal shores of Lough Foyle was stopped; samples of shellfish were taken from the Lough and sent for detailed analysis, the result of which are expected tomorrow. Sampling will continue for as long as may be necessary. I established that no shellfish from the Lough had been placed on the market from the date of the incident on Tuesday, 6 October. I directed that the ban on harvesting should continue until we were satisfied that it was completely safe for it to be lifted; the Department of Health in Northern Ireland have lifted the ban this evening, but we will not do so until we are satisfied that it is fully safe; we can take this a step further when we have full details of the samples which were taken by officials of the Department of the Marine over the past few days. The North-Western Health Board were informed by my Department through the local environmental health officer.
The perception may have been that all fish were involved. Only shellfish are harvested there. There is no question of white fish, demersal or pelagic fish being affected since they are caught quite a distance away. I hope there will be no doubt about that.
I made immediate direct contact with the Chief Chemist, Donegal County Council, as soon as I was advised of the matter on Saturday morning to ensure maximum co-ordination of monitoring efforts. The council set in train a monitoring programme on marine life along the shore of the Foyle and are in close daily contact with my Department. In statements issued on Saturday and Sunday, 10 and 11 October, the Minister and I expressed serious concern that the Du Pont company did not notify the authorities here about the pollution incident. The salmon and shellfish industry in Lough Foyle is a valuable source of jobs locally and this pollution incident could have had serious economic and public health consequences.
So concerned were we by the failure of the company to notify us of this incident that arrangements have been made for a special meeting of the Foyle Fisheries Commission tomorrow, together with technical officials of my Department, Donegal County Council and the Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland. The Foyle Fisheries Commission is a joint North-South body with representatives from both administrations and has responsibilities for administering fisheries in the Foyle area. My officials will meet representatives of the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment to establish the cause of the pollution and to seek to prevent a repetition. The Minister has also been in contact with his Cabinet colleague, the Minister for the Environment, to see what measures can be taken to prevent pollution of Lough Foyle in the future.
Both my Department and the Department of the Environment have well-established working relations with the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland. In relation to the Foyle, the two Departments of the Environment and Donegal County Council liaise on water management and protection for Border areas. They are currently engaged in drawing up cross-Border water quality management plans.
What disappoints me is that there was a structure in relation to the Foyle and there was no reason why the company could not have informed their Department of the Environment, who in turn could have informed Donegal County Council and the North-Western Health Board. The structures are there and we want to ensure that nothing like this will ever happen again.
In relation to the water quality management plan, a contract for the preparation of the Lough Foyle plan is expected to be placed shortly. In the light of the spillage, a review will be undertaken of the channels of communication between the respective authorities, North and South, in incidents of this kind. There is a discharge licence from the DOE in Northern Ireland and I would be very disappointed if there were not a condition in that discharge licence whereby the company involved in a spillage should immediately alert the local authority or the health board in the area. That should have happened on Tuesday of last week. I hope there will never be a recurrence but if so, there should be an early alert.
As regards compensation for fishermen, it is a matter to be pursued directly between the fishermen concerned and the company. I have noted reports to the effect that the company is prepared to listen to compensation claims if damage to the fishing industry can be proved.
I can assure the House that I will do everything possible to protect the fishing industry in Lough Foyle. The incident which occurred last week in the Foyle will be fully investigated and whatever measures are needed will be taken to protect this valuable marine resource.
Deputy McDaid referred to having a local person on the commission. I will deal with this at a later stage because I would not want to give the impression that the presence of a local person on the Foyle Fisheries Commission could have averted this incident. I will consider the matter at a later stage.
