Mary Harney
Ceist:282 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment if he will report on his meeting with the Ballaghaderreen Concerned Citizens Group on Wednesday, 30 April 1997. [12427/97]
Written Answers. - IDA Lands.
The issue with which this group is concerned relates to whether the use to which a portion of land sold recently by the IDA for use as a waste site will constitute a threat to the health of the residents of Ballaghaderreen or to its economy.
As the Deputy will be aware, the purchaser of the site in question applied to Forfás some time ago for space on a serviced site "for recycling purposes" in line with current Government conservation and recycling policy. In the view of IDA Ireland this is an industrial undertaking meeting the criteria set out in the relevant legislation. Markets have been identified for the final product both in Ireland and the UK.
A contract for the sale of this site has been entered into between IDA Ireland and the purchaser in respect of his industrial undertaking in Ballaghaderreen. Planning permission for the proposed development has been received from An Bord Pleanála and there is therefore no basis on which IDA Ireland could withdraw from its agreement. At my meeting with the group on 30 April I reiterated my position which is, essentially, that in the circumstances in which all legal and planning requirements have been complied with by the purchaser, but residents continue to feel there are grounds for concern about the use and location of the site, the most constructive way forward is to establish at local level whether or not any mutually acceptable alternative site is available. I urged the group to allow some space for such a possibility to be explored by the interested parties and I have reiterated my direction to the IDA to do everything within its power to facilitate a mutually acceptable outcome.