Pollution scandal - Minister cannot say site is safe

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley yesterday afternoon suggested that this paper was being used by individuals who, he expects, will be involved in a court action with his department over contracts to clean the badly contaminated Irish Steel plant site at Haulbowline in Cork Harbour.

He suggested that we published revelations about unknown quantities of the highly-toxic chemical chromium 6 — also known as hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) — as well as hydrocarbons, lead, mercury and radioactive materials dumped on the site to gain leverage for these individuals.

These are serious, and as Mr Gormley knows, utterly unfounded allegations. His was an amateur, half-cocked attempt to undermine the messenger, and amount to no more than a momentary diversion in a scandal that has run unchecked for nearly a decade. A scandal that has been the direct responsibility of Mr Gormley’s department since 2003.

However, it must be admitted that Mr Gormley cannot be held responsible for the inaction between 2003 and his elevation to cabinet a little over a year ago. Before he became a minister he would have been leading the charge, full-on, full volume, demanding action, answers, reassurances, access to reports — either those in his department or those squirrelled away by Cork County Council.

Basically, nothing more than the tens of thousands of people living and working in the environs of the toxic mess and this newspaper have sought for over the years.

Mr Gormley has sadly proved the adage — the best way to silence a revolutionary is to give him a seat at cabinet — to be as true as it ever was.

If this paper is culpable, it is that we ignored the scandal for too long. We should have pursued it more vigorously because the outrageous delays, anti-democratic secrecy, ineptness and sense of threat surrounding the whole affair are a national scandal.

The department has been directly responsible for the site for five years and still they don’t know what was dumped there. What have they been doing? How long will they need? Ten years? Twenty years, maybe? After all we are not exactly talking about Texas here. Haulbowline is just 84 acres and the steel mill just a portion of that.

To put this snail’s pace public service delivery in context, the Channel Tunnel was built in six years.

The frustration surrounding this saga deepened early yesterday when opposition deputies were not allowed raise the matter in the Dáil. Though they were later successful our parliament was again diminished and is sadly seen as a kind of set-piece variety act increasingly irrelevant to the day-to-day life of the country.

Despite all of this indignation, this ducking and dodging and finger-pointing, the core issue remains unchanged. Within miles of this country’s second city there is an old industrial dump containing — well we don’t know definitively and it seems, neither does anyone else. We believe that there are a range of toxins as well as carcinogens on the site. Mr Gormley said “his officials” have assured him that the site does not represent a danger to the people living in the area.

If he cannot tell us what is in the dump how can he tell us it is safe? We need to know what has been dumped at Haulbowline and we cannot wait another five months, not to mention another five years.

The great pity about Mr Gormley’s inadequate response — the latest in a long line from government on this issue — is that he has damaged his credibility and possibly jeopardised his capacity to deliver on the very many vital environmental issues within his remit.

Again we say, it’s time for honesty and action.