Vol. 434 No. 9
18 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment if he has satisfied himself with the responses of the Environmental Protection Agency, Cork County Council and the emergency services to the recent incidents in Ringaskiddy, County Cork.
49 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for the Environment his response to reports prepared by the Environmental Protection Agency and Cork County Council into serious fires at two chemical plants in Cork in August 1993; the steps, if any, he has taken arising from these reports to reduce the danger of similar accidents in the future; the further steps, if any, he plans to take; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 49 together.
Detailed reports have been produced by the Environmental Protection Agency and Cork County Council in relation to the incidents at the Hickson Pharmachem and ADM plants. These address, in particular, the environmental impacts and the fire and emergency response aspects.
As regards plant safety, the Minister of State with responsibility for Labour Affairs has requested the Health and Safety Authority, as the national body responsible for workplace safety standards, to conduct a review of all major chemical installations and to communicate their findings to the managements of the works involved.
The Environmental Protection Agency and county council reports indicate that no significant environmental impacts resulted from the ADM incident. As regards the environmental impact of the Hickson incident, the overall conclusion is that significant environmental damage was limited to groundwater contamination. Assessment of the fire and emergency response aspect indicates that the local authority reacted in an appropriate manner and satisfactorily discharged its responsibilities at both incidents.
The Environmental Protection Agency conclusions and recommendations in relation to the Hickson incident are directed primarily at the environmental regulatory authority, Cork County Council, and the company. I have urged that there should be full co-operation between these parties in this regard and the company has confirmed its full support for this approach. The agency will be seeking periodic reports on progress concerning its recommendations from Cork County Council.
The council is to review the air and water licences for the Hickson plant as recommended by the agency and, in accordance with section 56 of the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency has been requested to advise Cork County Council in relation to these reviews. My Department has also requested all local authorities to review, and report, on their environmental management and control systems in the light of the lessons to be learned from the Environmental Protection Agency reports on these and other incidents.
Cork County Council, in its report, has highlighted the need to review some aspects of its major emergency planning arrangements, notably in the area of communicating information to the public. I understand that this review is in progress. My Department is also undertaking a general review of the guidelines issued to local authorities to assist them in planning for major emergencies.
I thank the Minister for this comprehensive reply. While I accept that this matter is not strictly his responsibilty, though I am sure he keeps in contact with his Cabinet colleague, when does the Minister expect the report of the Health and Safety Authority to be published? I accept that this will be the major inquiry into this incident. Will the Environmental Protection Agency implement the Sevesco Directive in any future cases so as to avoid duplication in the reporting procedures, which appears to exist at present?
In regard to the Deputy's first question, I could not say off hand when the report of the Health and Safety Authority will be published. Clearly it is important that this report be as comprehensive as possible and that a work programme be formulated on foot of it to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future.
With regard to the Environmental Protection Agency, improvements in both administrative recruitment and the positions it will be able to adopt are being processed in the context of the Estimates. I look forward to the finalisation of these improvements soon so that the licensing arrangements and the other designated operations can be transferred to the agency at an early date.
The Minister's silence and invisibility during these major incidents in the summer were a cause of concern. I should like to hear the Minister's response to the accusation by Cork County Council that the management of the Hickson plant is guilty of serious negligence, that the Environmental Protection Agency has shown the Hickson plant regularly broke the law and that Cork County Council has been in serious breach of the monitoring requirements. What action does the Minister propose to take in this regard?
I reject out of hand the suggestion that I was silent and invisible during these major incidents. The only time I was absent was when I took a brief ten day holiday, which I expect was considerably less than Deputy Doyle's holiday. I hope I do not have to apologise to this House for taking ten days holidays as Minister for the Environment. I am sorry that the Deputy's comments should have reflected so severely on the competence of her colleague from Wexford, the Minister of State at my Department.
Where was the senior Minister? The Minister of State was around but where was the Minister.
I am able to restrain myself and listen and I ask the Deputy to do the same, even for a minute.
I am listening.
I should not like the Deputy's comments to reflect so severely on her colleague from Wexford, the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Deputy Browne——
He did his best to deputise for the Minister.
——who visited Cork to see this incident at first hand and communicated with me. A number of advances has been made through the resolution of this problem. The Environmental Protection Agency is located in the Deputy's constituency and I thought she would have complimented it on its speedy action in this case and on the comprehensive nature of its report. All reputable commentators have acknowledged the efficient way in which the agency dealt with that problem. It should be remembered that the agency is still in an embryonic stage of its development and Deputy Doyle, in whose constituency the agency is located, would do well to say a few words of appreciation for the work carried out by an agency.
The Minister would do better to answer my questions than waste time——
I will answer the questions.
At last.
What about the rest of us?
The Minister has spent five minutes avoiding questions.
I will defend my Department and the Minister of State when they are attacked.
Lest there be any misunderstanding about it, I was attacking the Minister, not the Minister of State. The Minister was invisible and silent during this difficult period.
The Minister to respond without interruption, please.
The involvement of the local authority and the Environmental Protection Agency in the Hickson plant incident does much credit to them. We have never denied that there were no problems at the Hickson plant. Following the recommendation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the local authority is reviewing the issuing of air and water licences to this company. I am told that these licences will be reviewed by the end of December or early January, at which time a work programme for the resolution of any outstanding problems will be established. Unless Deputy Doyle is suggesting that the plant should be closed down, putting another 200 people on the unemployment register——
That line will not work with me.
——I do not think there is a need for me to say any more.
That is a ridiculous statement.
The Minister is being defensive.
The Minister should be ashamed of himself.
