I welcome the opportunity to raise this issue publicly. Despite the seriousness of the matter and the severity of the blast, which could have had lethal consequences, there appeared to be a conspiracy of silence surrounding this event. I do not believe there was a conspiracy and perhaps the reason for the silence was the sheer disbelief by the contractor that this could have happened a second time.
However incredible the event, local residents have been left in the dark for almost a week in terms of the circumstances surrounding it. All that is known is that at 6 p.m. last Wednesday a blast warning was given in the normal way and the normal blast took place. A half an hour or so later when workers had gone home – luckily there were only a few AMCO employees still on the site – a huge unexplained and unplanned explosion took place. This explosion shook houses in the locality and set off many house alarms. There were no injuries but I am convinced that if last Wednesday night had not been extremely cold and wet there would have been injuries.
The initial reaction to phone calls to the site office the next morning was that nothing had happened. It was subsequently admitted that something had happened but no information was available other than it was being investigated. On Friday, two days after this frightening explosion, the Health and Safety Authority issued a statement saying it had been informed by the Garda of an incident on the Southern Cross and it was investigating it. An incident is an altercation between two drunks outside a pub. This was not an incident; it was a serious accident, a massive explosion, which requires more by way of explanation.
I congratulate the Health and Safety Authority for the speed with which it moved onto the site to withdraw the licence of the blasting company. I understand it is carrying out a thorough investigation and considering legal proceedings. There is a terrible sense of déja vu about this explosion. There was a full investigation after the first explosion last September, a file was prepared for the DPP and new procedures were put in place. A few months later at the beginning of the next series of blasts there was another accident in what appears to have been exactly the same circumstances. The first accident left three people injured, including a young garda who has permanent hearing loss. Much damage has been done to local houses and many people feel aggrieved that they did not get what they were promised. There are serious worries about the long-term impact of the explosion on their homes. The first accident should never have happened and it defies belief that there should have been a second explosion on the same site in the same circumstances.
The use of explosives is a serious business and I and other members of the public attended meetings prior to the commencement of the project. Concerns about the possibility of damage during blasting were dismissed and we were assured that there would be extreme vigilance, the strictest of procedures would be applied and the use of explosives was now such a precise science that accidents could not happen. I do not raise this matter to apportion blame as that is a matter for the Health and Safety Authority. Rather I raise it because what has happened does not inspire confidence that future blasting can be undertaken safely. The next phase of the project, the M50, is due to start shortly. It not only involves a huge amount of blasting but the blasting will take place in close proximity to homes and offices in a built-up and densely populated area.
The challenge for the Minister is to restore confidence in the blasting process. This accident also has implications for other projects such as the port tunnel and the metro. Concerns have already been expressed about disruption and possible damage caused by planned blasting. However, the possibility of accidental explosions adds a whole new dimension to these projects. If confidence is to be restored the Minister must give a full public account of precisely what happened on the site last Wednesday, how the strict procedures governing the disposal of explosives and the new procedures were ignored and the procedures which can be put in place to ensure a similar incident will not happen again. The least the public, particularly those who live close to the site, deserve is a detailed explanation.
