I would like to outline a serious problem for the people of Dingle, for fish processing in the town and for fishermen. I will explain the history of this sorry saga.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was decided to develop the fishing harbour in Dingle to its full potential. Arising from the development of the harbour, substantial investment was made by fishermen, unaided by a State grant, in second-hand fishing vessels ranging from 90 to 100 feet to fish uncaught quotas in the Irish Box.
Dingle was ideally situated to exploit the situation. Approximately £4.7 million was spent on the development of the harbour over a couple of years. Arising from this development and the investment by fishermen in new and second-hand boats, approximately 200 extra jobs were created for deck-hands and onshore workers. Prior to the development of the harbour in Dingle, fish landings in 1989 were valued at over £1.1 million. This figure has increased steadily over the years and, for the past two or three years, it has exceeded £5 million. Dingle has become the fourth largest port in terms of fish landings. It is expected that approximately £7 million worth of fish will be landed in Dingle in 1996.
In line with that, local fish processing plants expanded and took on more workers. There was no shortage of private investment which was helped by State grants from Údarás na Gaeltachta, etc. Approximately 200 men and women work in these fish processing plants.
Three years ago, Kerry County Council, acting as agents for the Department of the Environment, decided to build a new sewage treatment plant for the town as, up until then, all sewage went untreated into Dingle Harbour. The harbour is landlocked and about one mile long and half a mile wide with a narrow entrance and exit. The announcement of the new treatment plant was welcomed by all. The tourism, fishing and fish processing industries welcomed this major development as it would be a huge advantage to Dingle. As chairman of the Dingle Harbour Commissioners, I, along with some of the commissioners and the harbour master, met council engineers and consultants on a few occasions about the new treatment plant. Wayleave had to be obtained for pipes going through Department of the Marine property under the control of the Dingle Harbour Commissioners and there were underground pumps and pumphouses, etc. We left no stone unturned in expediting the matter as quickly and efficiently as possible. At the time, we were assured by the people we met that there would be no pollution from sewage flowing into Dingle Harbour when the plant was finished. We were assured that the water would be so clean, we could drink it.
Each of the fish processing plants was given a connection to this main sewage treatment plant. In fact, Údarás na Gaeltachta paid £250,000 to extend the scheme from Milltown Bridge to its Ballyhea industrial estate which has two substantially sized fish processing plants. The only reason for this was to ensure the effluent from the fish processing factories would go into the new sewage treatment plant, thereby preventing any pollution of a local river or Dingle Harbour. A third fish processing plant nearer Dingle was also given a connection to this sewerage scheme.
In planning such a sewage treatment plant, fish processors, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the fishing industry should be properly consulted on the amount of fish processing which is done locally and which is likely to occur in the future so that the plant will be able to cater for any future development.
The outflow from the plant enters the sea at approximately the same place where the old sewerage scheme entered the sea. As soon as the new sewage treatment plant opened, I realised something was seriously wrong because, looking from my home down into the harbour, I could see hundreds of sea birds gathering where the outflow entered the sea. That meant that some amount of raw sewage was entering the sea at that point. Over the last six months at meetings of Dingle Harbour Commissioners, of which I am chairman, several members asked why the treatment plant was not working properly. Two local councillors on the harbour commissioners put down a notice of motion to Kerry County Council about it. They were informed that, at peak periods for about three weeks of the year when a lot of fish were being landed at Dingle, the treatment plant was unable to cater for the high volume of effluent coming from fish processing plants. It is ridiculous for anyone to state that a £3.5 million sewage treatment plant cannot cater for peak periods in the fish processing plants in Dingle when more fish will be landed in future and more fish processing plants will be built.
The £3.5 million state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant is doing no more to prevent pollution in Dingle Harbour than if it did not exist at all. Someone is at fault and serious errors have been made in the proper planning of this sewerage treatment plant. It has been brought to my notice that Kerry County Council has suggested that the three processing plants should install their own effluent treatment plants before their effluent is allowed into the main sewage treatment plant. If that were to happen, it would cost £300,000 to £350,000 per processing plant. To suggest something like that is absolutely crazy since these fish processing plants were assured that the treatment plant would take the effluent from their factories.
To make matters worse, one of the factories carried out a major upgrading and expansion one and a half years ago and the owner is still owed a grant of £750,000 which is being withheld by Údarás na Gaeltachta. The job is finished, the factory opened for business over a year ago in new premises and is giving much needed work to 100 men and women. Through no fault of his own, the grant is withheld because the owner cannot comply with the conditions of the effluent discharge licence. He has been given one month by Kerry County Council to implement a treatment plant for which planning permission would take at least three to four months. Should Kerry County Council insist on these conditions, there will be no option but to close the factory and make 100 people redundant which will have a knock-on effect on fishing in Dingle. I ask that the owner be immediately paid the £750,000 owed to him for the refurbishment and extension of the factory and I appeal to the Minister to use his good offices with the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht in that respect.
I am reliably told that 80 per cent of the sewage going to the new treatment plant is bypassing it and flowing into the harbour. Recently, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs opened the Mara Beo Aquarium in Dingle which cost £3 million. It is a huge success. The water from the aquarium is drawn from Dingle Harbour. If the harbour is being polluted to the extent I believe, the aquarium could be wiped out which would be absolutely disastrous. I and the harbour commissioners could be held up to ridicule in that we were under the impression that this plant would give us a harbour free from pollution. We applied for a blue flag for Dingle marina and, if the pollution is to continue, there will not be much chance of getting that blue flag.
I appeal to the Minister to investigate why this treatment plant failed and is unable to cater for the small amount of effluent from three fish processing plants. My hope is that there will be an increased landing of fish and that extra jobs will be created in fish processing in Dingle. This will lead to increased effluent flowing into the new sewage treatment plant which should be able to cope with it so that the harbour will be free from pollution. This matter should be addressed by those who are to blame. The Dingle Harbour Commissioners and the fish processors were assured that when this new treatment plant was put in place, there would be no more trouble.
I want the Minister to investigate what has gone wrong so this matter can be rectified at no cost to the fish processors, who did everything they were asked. If this matter is not rectified quickly and if Kerry County Council prevents the effluent from fish processing factories going into the treatment plant, all the boats in Dingle will be tied up. I do not want to scaremonger but I would like to hear what the Minister has to say.
