Cork County Council has unveiled an ambitious €723m plan for housing, roads, and other major projects which it proposes to undertake up to 2020.

A consortium has been appointed to transform the former Haulbowline steelworks dump into a multimillion-euro park and tourist attraction.

The Government has committed to spending €61m on turning part of Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour into a public park, despite a report commissioned by the Office of Public Works (OPW), which concluded it was an unsuitable location for use as a public amenity.

An environmental lobby group is warning that cutbacks or delays to the proposed clean-up of a toxic waste dump in Cork Harbour would breach a legal agreement between Ireland and the European Commission (EC).

The organisation which represents the majority of the Naval Service says there can be no delay in cleaning up a toxic waste dump close to its headquarters in Cork harbour and claimed the Government has “a legal and moral obligation to safeguard those employed in the area”.

Plans for a major clean-up of the former Irish Steel site on Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour could be delayed after the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform raised concerns about the scale of expenditure on the project.

Work is due to start shortly on clearing gantry cranes and other scrap metal from a toxic dump in Cork harbour, as a prelude to making the site safe and transforming it into a public park with playing pitches.

The Government is to invest nearly €4m stabilising three architecturally-stunning old buildings in Cork harbour which are planned to eventually become home to high-tech spinoff companies created by Irish Maritime Energy Research Cluster and the UCC-run Beaufort research centre.

A long-standing blot on the landscape of Cork Harbour will be no more by mid-2018 with a major overhaul of Haulbowline Island set to commence this year.

Contracts worth almost €2m have been signed to upgrade the Haulbowline Island bridges to facilitate the multi-million clean-up of the former Irish Steel toxic dump site.

An Bord Pleanála has approved an ambitious €40m remediation plan to transform one of the State’s worst environmental disaster zones into a large public park.

It was great to read a good-news story about the development of the Lower Cork Harbour in your article (Irish Examiner, March 12).

As a Harbour resident and a boating enthusiast, the Marine Minister Simon Coveney is well-placed to oversee the progress in plans being made for his maritime backdoor, he tells Tommy Barker

Fears have been expressed that defences erected around a toxic dump were breached during the recent hurricane, releasing potentially harmful chemicals into Cork harbour.

A 13-hectare public park in Cork Harbour, with a 3km circuit for walking and running, forms part of a €40m clean-up plan for one of the State’s worst environmental disaster zones.

It was indeed encouraging in this economic climate to read a good news story about Cork Harbour (Irish Examiner, Nov 14).

HAULBOWLINE Island was the site of Ireland’s only steel plant.

A toxic dump in Cork harbour could be made safe by late-2015 or early-2016, according to the head of a team working on the project.

The minister responsible for cleaning up a toxic dump in Cork harbour has promised to look for more money if the project costs in excess of the €40m already set aside by the Government.

THE environmental lobby group that complained to the European Commission about the toxic dump in Cork Harbour fears the Government is ignoring vast areas of contamination in its long-awaited €40 million clean-up of the site.

THE Government has refused to carry out a baseline health study in Cork harbour, despite the discovery of a toxic waste dump adjacent to a town which has a 44% higher cancer rate than the national average.

THE Government is to establish a working group to decide upon the future of the former Irish Steel plant in Haulbowline, Co Cork, and the toxic waste it contains.

A LEADING environmental group has warned the Government will inevitably face court actions over the hazardous waste dump at the former Irish Steel site in Cork harbour.

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley will be unable to say how the former Irish Steel plant will be dealt with until a Government decision is made on the issue.

POLITICIANS representing the area gave a cautious welcome to the main findings of the Haulbowline report but said serious questions still remained.

TOXINS, such as chromium, have been found in and around the dump known as the East Tip on Haulbowline Island, but these do not pose a immediate threat to local residents, according to a report of Government-appointed consultants.

A PROBE is under way into allegations that contaminated material from the toxic Haulbowline site was used to build roads.

THE owner of a company that specialises in water treatment said yesterday she would be more concerned about airborne chemicals around Cobh than water contaminated by the toxic dump in Haulbowline.

RESIDENTS living near the Haulbowline toxic dump have taken water samples for analysis amid rising health fears.

THE man who blew the whistle on the Haulbowline toxic dump scandal has said he will not be silenced by the state’s threat of legal action.

CELEBRITY solicitor Gerald Kean vowed last night to get answers for men involved in the Haulbowline Island toxic waste clean-up.