I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter of serious concern. The Minister for State wears several hats on behalf of the Government. One seems to be Minister of State with responsibility for Adjournment debates. In his role as Minister for State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government I ask him to convey to the Minister my serious concern about the issue I will now outline.
On 30 May 2002, 13 days after I was elected to this House, a pollution incident occurred on the grounds of GlaxoSmithKline Beecham in Currabinny, Carrigaline, County Cork. It occurred when a toxic by-product was being disposed of in an on-site incinerator on the company's grounds. A chemical reaction took place when steam connected with the materials in the fire chambers, resulting in the release of 2.4 kg of a substance known as dimethylsulphate.
The company did not inform any of the State agencies responsible for environmental protection or the health and safety of the workforce at the plant. The information that this incident occurred was made available by a worker at the plant to the Health and Safety Authority, which then instituted court proceedings. The Environmental Protection Agency became aware of the incident through the Health and Safety Authority and initiated its own District Court proceedings. These were heard in June 2003. This was the first public acknowledgement that a serious pollution incident had occurred at this site.
As a constituency Deputy, I wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency and asked why it did not publicly confirm such incidents. It gave me the hollow excuse that it felt that subsequent prosecutions might be compromised. We do not hear such an argument when ordinary crimes are being prosecuted. I received an undertaking that the agency would review its proceedings on this matter, but we have to wait to see if that will come to pass.
The Health and Safety Authority managed last week to secure a prosecution of the company in the Circuit Court under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989, as a result of which a fine of €15,000 was imposed. This was the first time that the details of the pollution occurrence were made public. The EPA prosecution related only to a breach of the company's IPC licence. It should be noted that it has been reported today that 30% of IPC licences issued by the EPA have been breached. The Minister and the Department will have to address this matter in another way. The fact that it has taken almost 18 months for a full public revelation of this serious pollution incident is a serious indictment of our environmental protection laws. The Health and Safety Authority said that the incident could have been fatal if the exposure had lasted any longer. The agencies involved do not seem to be responsible for ensuring that the public is made aware of incidents such as this.
The RTE journalist, Mr. Tom MacSweeney, who presents the "Seascapes" radio programme which deals with maritime issues, has followed up this issue. He asked the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government why certain information was not made publicly available, but he was told that the matter was not its responsibility. He asked this question of Cork County Council, which is a major player in the Cork major emergency plan, but it said that it was not aware of the problem until the second court case took place last week. He contacted the Environmental Protection Agency, but it said that the company had not informed it of the matter, even though the agency was involved in a prosecution at District Court level.
There is a very serious flaw in the existing legislation in this area. This flaw will be exacerbated because of the policies of the Minister, Deputy Cullen, who not only feels that this type of waste disposal should be continued by the various companies that hold integrated pollution licences, but also thinks that there should be larger-scale waste disposal of toxic materials in the area where the establishment of a national toxic incinerator has been proposed. When incidents of this type occur, how are the people of my constituency supposed to have confidence in the environmental protection measures that exist, in the agencies that are meant to promote them and in the proposal for a waste disposal incinerator?
