Company had unauthorised licence deal

THE giant Aughinish Alumina (AAL) plant on the Shannon Estuary had an unauthorised arrangement with an official of the Shannon Regional Fisheries permitting the company not to report certain breaches of its pollution control licence.

The matter was brought to the notice of members of the fisheries board at a meeting in Limerick yesterday.

It had earlier been raised in the Dáil by Deputy Joe Higgins who asked the Minister for the Marine about a 2003 deal between AAL and the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board.

Under, this informal arrangement, AAL did not have to notify the fisheries board of breaches of its pollution control licence unless it was exceeded by 10%.

Minister of State Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher said in reply: “In 1998, Aughinish Alumina Ltd was issued with an Integrated Pollution Control Licence by the EPA (Environment Protection Agency). A condition of that licence, as it relates to discharges to waters, is that the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board was to be notified of all emissions that did not comply with the requirements set out in the licence.

“When this matter was brought to my attention recently, I asked for a report from the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board in the matter. I subsequently learned from the board that the officer with responsibility for monitoring water pollution, who was aware that the EPA was monitoring and had mechanisms in place to deal with minor breaches of the IPC Licence, agreed informally with Aughinish Alumina Ltd that they would only notify him of an emission where it exceeded the conditions of the licence by 10%. This arrangement was undertaken without the consent of the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board and is not normal procedure.

“I am advised that following an EPA audit of the IPC Licence in 2003, the agreement came to light and the EPA instructed the company to implement the conditions of the licence in full, which has been the case since 2003.”

However, the officer was given the full backing of the fisheries board yesterday.

A board member told the Irish Examiner: “The officer is an exemplary official and he just did not have the resources to deal with every incident, no matter how small. The department just did not give him the resources to deal with every matter, hence the arrangement with the company.”