I introduce the members of the delegation, Mr. John Maher, Mr. John Hogan, Mr. Richard O'Brien, Ms Margaret Ryan. I am the chairman of the group. Our committee consists of ten or 11 members, five of whom are here and it has been active for the past 24 years. I thank the members of the committee for asking us to attend and we have been here before. I have copies of our presentation for everyone and it includes reports we commissioned and examples of monthly readings which have been taken in the area. I invite members to take a copy away with them.
Silvermines has been a centre of mining since the Middle Ages with the mining of silver, copper, lead and zinc. Mogul Ireland started mining in the late 1960s and closed down in 1982. The closure left a 139-acre site with mine tailings of a height of 40 feet which contained toxic waste. Since then, we have endured dust blows on a regular basis, the most recent of which was yesterday afternoon at 2 p.m.
Our committee was formed in 1984 by farmers, house owners, residents and other people from the local community. Ms Margaret Ryan is a nurse, for instance. We come from all parts, north, south, east and west around the site. We all live in the area. We have been fighting to have the area cleaned up since then. The area consists of a number of different sites, the primary one being Gortmore. There is another significant site in the rehabilitation project at Garryard where it is proposed to put the toxic waste from the other mine sites and to cap it. This would contain all the toxic waste in one site with Gortmore being the primary site.
Our aim is to make those responsible for this environmental disaster take responsibility for the health and environmental hazards which local people have endured on a daily basis. We have chased the mining company for many years. Three years ago the Government decided to intervene and take responsibility as it believed the mining company was not meeting its obligations under clause K of the mining lease. This was an unprecedented move which some of us believed we would never see happen but we are very grateful that it has happened.
After 24 years our aim is still to see the rehabilitation project completed satisfactorily and as quickly as possible so that our generation and particularly our children's generation can have a clean environment in which to grow up and live in. We do not think this is too much to ask. All we want is to breathe clean air the same as everybody else in the country. We have a lot of young families living in the area because of the Celtic tiger. Many young families have moved into the area. There are three schools within a two-mile radius of the site.
As a result of animal deaths, in 1999 the Government set up an inter-agency group which consisted of personnel from the relevant Departments. The IAG, as it was called, commissioned SRK Consulting to draw up a draft rehabilitation plan. This resulted in the IAG making 39 recommendations, many of which have been implemented but all the toxic mine sites have yet to be rehabilitated. In August 2005 the Government took on responsibility for the clean-up and rehabilitation of all mine sites in the area, committing €10.6 million in funds.
Regarding the status of the work on the sites, as it stands, the only work ongoing is a heritage project. We do not know when the work will begin on cleaning up Gortmore. We are told it is imminent. A letter of intent to sign the contract has been sent to the contractors. We understand insurance issues have arisen in the case of the contractor's insurance. This work will not be as comprehensive as we would wish and there are many questions about the budget. We tried to get assurances from North Tipperary County Council but because of all the issues we are not sure when the work will start, despite the Minister's comments in the Dáil a couple of weeks ago. We do not know when the work will be completed. To date, no physical rehabilitation has taken place. Toxic dust continues to blow off the tailings pond, as recorded by the EPA dust monitors which are read monthly by the county council on behalf of the EPA. Our presentation pack includes an example of the readings and it lists all the different chemicals for which the area is tested. I refer to antimony, which is supposed to be carcinogenic, arsenic and many other things. Many of these materials are carcinogenic and this is worrying.
We are concerned about the long-term effects of this dust on the people living in the area. A report by the EPA in January 1999 deemed the Gortmore site to be a perpetual risk to human health and the environment. It went on to say that it therefore requires a structured, comprehensive, active and continued management. This was stated nine years ago and nothing has changed since. As a direct result of animal deaths in the late 1990s, the Department of Health and Children undertook a blood level testing programme of adults and children in areas where high levels of lead were detected. Some of the adults and children had elevated lead levels in their blood at that stage.
As a result of our concern we raised funds and commissioned a report by Professor R. P. Finnegan concerning led levels in children at Silvermines. We were also concerned about other fugitive dust emissions that were shown to be blowing off the tailings pond on a monthly basis. Professor Finnegan's report confirmed our worst fears. There are three reports. Page 24 of the main report states that there is arsenic present in the fugitive dust emissions in significant amounts at similar synergistic effects to lead in the induction of anaemia, which is an immunosuppressant and is a primary carcinogen. I did not understand the word "synergistic" when I read it. What it means is that if a person is exposed to lead it is a carcinogen. If a person is exposed to lead and arsenic, which are two carcinogens, it doubles the person's chances of getting cancer. A person exposed to three carcinogens triples the chances and four would quadruple the chance. That is what we are living with. At least half a dozen carcinogens have been identified as coming from this site on a daily basis. The report made frightening reading. I ask members to go through the conclusions of our reports when they get them. I do not know whether members have a copy.
I will go through the photographs. The first photograph shows the Gortmore site. There is a bungalow behind the site which is Mr. John Hogan's house. Mr. Hogan's farmland can be seen behind it. Many houses are extremely close to this area. In 1983 or 1984, when we had a bad dust blow, Mr. Hogan's wife was pregnant and they needed to be evacuated from the house. Even though the house was sealed, when they came back there was a quarter of an inch of dust in all the presses. Mr. Hogan's family still live through that every day, as do all our families.
The next photograph is taken from the Magcobar site which is another site looking down on Gortmore. The third photograph was not taken with a shaded lens. That is the colour of the dust blow when it occurs. It is a bright red colour. That is what the site looks like at the moment. There was no doctoring of the pictures. The fourth photograph could have been taken in any desert in the world, but it was not. It is in a little corner of Tipperary within half a mile of all our houses.
When the €10.6 million was committed to the clean up we were assured that Gortmore would be fully rehabilitated by the summer of 2009. The commitment was given that Gortmore would be "frontloaded and prioritised" as it was a health hazard. Recently we were informed that only €2 million would be made available in 2008 with the remaining work to be carried out on a phased basis over three to four years. We have been told that the work on Gortmore will cost between €7 million and €8 million. We can understand a phased basis on some of the other five or six sites that have planning issues and we could understand doing one site at a time on those sites or smaller sites. There is no reason to deal with Gortmore on a phased basis.
Our main concern is the lack of commitment to complete the rehabilitation in as short a timeframe as possible. We would like the budget to be made available for each individual site in the Silvermines clean-up as a standalone project. The rehabilitation of each site should be completed as separate projects. While we can understand working on some sites on a phased basis, there is no logical explanation for dealing with Gortmore on a phased basis. The funding should be provided to complete all the projects taking into account inflation and increased costs.
We believe the existing budget is insufficient. The project timeline should be fully outlined for the complete rehabilitation of Gortmore and the other mining sites. This timeline needs to be adhered to. A more proactive approach needs to be adopted to tendering for the work on the rehabilitation project. There is a concern that complications in this area are not helping the speedy completion of the project with components of the work being done in bite sizes. It is being done piecemeal as we speak. There is talk of treating Gortmore as a three or four-year project. The local authority is overseeing all this work and is distributing the funds. This year it had almost €2 million to spend on Gortmore. It needed to wait to see how much funding it received before it could call in the consultants to provide a tender document to estimate approximately what the €2 million would cover. We do not know how much it will get next year to spend on Gortmore. It will again need to call in its consultants to draw up a tender document for whatever amount it gets. There is considerable duplication. Considerable extra money is being spent that should not need to be spent.
The committee might consider inviting the relevant departmental officials to appear before a future meeting to address our concerns. Approximately five years ago members of the previous committee visited Gortmore although they did not visit any of the other sites. We would like to invite members of the committee to visit in the future when this project is fully operational to see how the money is being used. It is an unprecedented project in the history of the State where the Government is stepping in and carrying out the clean-up. We would appreciate it if the committee would keep a watchful eye on what is going on with all the different phases of the project to ensure it is kept on the move.
We would like to meet the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, sometime. We have met him before. He has been in our area once or twice, but that is a different story. All we want is a clean environment for ourselves and our children in which to live. We are not asking for any more or less than anybody else in the country is entitled to. We do not believe it is too much to ask. I thank the members for listening to our presentation.