Liquidated steel company to abandon lease

THE Irish taxpayer is about to be handed a poisoned chalice — an island property with a clean-up bill likely to cost tens of millions of euro.

Liquidator of ISPAT/Irish Steel Ray Jackson of KPMG last night confirmed he is to seek High Court approval for the liquidated steel company to abandon its lease on the Haulbowline Island plant in Cork harbour.

It means the landlord, the Department of Finance, will be left facing an as-yet undetermined clean-up bill to sterilise the land which has radioactive and other pollutant problems identified by an EPA report.