I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 37 together.
The House will be aware that my Department has been in touch with the corresponding UK authorities over a period regarding these various matters. We have been informed that the Ministry of Defence did indeed undertake sea dumping of chemical weapons stocks and conventional munitions as a means of disposing of redundant and surplus stocks and dealing with the legacy of weapons produced in the world wars. These disposals occurred in a number of locations and at random dates. We have been informed that all such dumping by the UK Government has ceased.
The House will be aware of my continuing and deep concerns in this whole matter. It is my firm objective to ensure that all information — in terms of locations, dates and nature of materials — on past disposals in the sea around our coasts is made public; the public is made fully aware of the current and planned monitoring of the state of our waters, both in the vicinity of dumped materials and in the wider marine area, and authoritative information is made available on the current and prospective state of dumped materials together with an assessment of any potential medium to long-term dangers from the dumping incidences.
To that end, I am today placing before the House all the information available to me in relation to dumping activities by the UK authorities. As already mentioned in the debate on the Adjournment on Tuesday, 10 October, I have made contact with the UK Government directly in relation to more recent claims of dumping, particularly disposals of nuclear material, and sought more detailed particulars of where and when dumping was conducted, whether any chemical or nuclear materials were involved and stressing the need for strict monitoring and management of any dumped material which might impact on the marine environment or human health. Since then I have also written to the UK Minister for the Environment stressing the need for urgent monitoring and better management of the various dump sites involved. I intend to follow up these various contacts urgently at a political level. I have also asked my Department and the Marine Institute to impress on the UK authorities and the scientific community the need to enhance our scientific knowledge of the processes involved in the breakdown of these substances and their impact; I intend to impress on the EU Commissioner responsible for environmental affairs our Government's concern in these areas and have written to her seeking an early meeting.
We are not alone in our concern about the use of the sea as a location for dumping chemical and nuclear material. On an international level, the dumping of chemical weapons is a matter of major concern to most contracting parties to the Oslo Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft, 1972. Ireland is a party to the Oslo Convention and the Government is actively pursuing the general issue of munitions dumping through that forum.
The Assessment and Monitoring Committee, a scientific working group of the Convention has considered studies undertaken by Denmark concerning war gas dumpings in the Baltic Sea and concluded, on the basis of the best available information and technical advice that, given the nature of the chemicals, seepage is not considered to pose serious hazards and efforts to retrieve or remove would be more dangerous than leaving the dumped material in place. Nevertheless, this remains a matter of serious concern and further investigation into this whole area is required.
I am, therefore, determined to ensure that a comprehensive investigation of the impact of the dumping of chemical weapons off the coast of Ireland should be initiated. In this regard it was decided, at the April meeting of ASMO this year that, as part of a wider quality status report on the maritime area covered by the Oslo Convention, the impact of the dumping of war gas ammunition would be specifically addressed. This wider quality status report is to be completed by the year 2000. Ireland and the UK are responsible for the preparation of that part of the report in respect of a region which covers the Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and areas to the west of Ireland and west of Scotland and the aim is to have the war gas and other aspects of dumped weapons addressed as speedily as possible.