I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to raise this matter. Every day the unsuspecting population of Dublin are put at extreme risk with the storage of and the passage through Dublin of highly dangerous and toxic chemicals by rail. Located in Dublin port not one mile from Fairview, Clontarf, North Strand, Ballybough and Croke Park areas is the Asahi storage plant for highly dangerous and toxic chemicals namely, acrylonitrile and methyl acrylate. They are awaiting transport by rail to the Asahi plant in Ballina, County Mayo.
Acrylonitrile is vinyl cyanide. On combustion it gives off cyanide gas which kills, in a matter of seconds, by inhalation through the lungs or through absorption of the skin. It has a low flash point which means it ignites very easily. When exposed to the atmosphere because it is heavier than air and lighter than water it forms a fog or a haze. Its dispersal is entirely dependent on the weather conditions prevailing at the time. If it is a calm day it will hang over Dublin Bay like a shroud killing all before it. This cloud would make the Union Carbide disaster in India look like a tea party in comparison.
Trains daily, unbelievably, ferry at evening rush hour from Dublin port 12,000 gallons of acrylonitrile, 10,000 gallons of methyl acrylate and 16,000 gallons of gas oil through north Dublin which has a population of 250,000 people.
An additional hazard for the unsuspecting people of Dublin is the transportation of approximately 400 tonnes of anhydrous ammonia from Marina Point in Cork to Arklow in County Wicklow. Ammonia as we know is a highly irritant and toxic corrosive gas. Why must the train from Cork to Arklow go through Dublin? It does not make sense. International fire authorities have stated that ammonia is extremely dangerous in close contact with acrylonitrile. Amazingly, these trains pass alongside the same section of track at or about the same time during rush hour every evening.
The population of north and south Dublin are needlessly, for the profit motive, put at risk by the passage of these chemicals through its city.
The storage plant in Dublin port was foisted upon the Dublin Port and Docks Board by the then Fianna Fáil Government because of the siege mentality of the Japanese economy who wanted access to EC markets and saw Dublin port as an ideal location. Murphy's law states that if it can happen it will happen. It has happened three times in Dublin Port in the last three years — on 20 February 1988 when the Tipperary and Sumburgh Head were in collision at virtually the same location as last week's tragic accident between the mv Kilkenny and the mv Hasselwerder; on 30 January 1987 when there was a derailment of Asahi chemical rail containers at Dublin port and two years prior to that when there was a major leakage of acrylonitrile in the midlands from a faulty valve on the Asahi train. The examples are numerous.
It is grossly irresponsible of the Minister, and the Government, to allow the continued storage of these deadly substances in Dublin Port. It is damnably irresponsible of the Minister and his Department to allow such substances to be transported by rail through Dublin, across the midlands, to Mayo. The solution is simple. The Minister must insist that the acrylonitrile be transported directly by sea to Ballina. They have the facilities, the terminal and the necessary expertise.