National archives 1984: Cabinet struggled over future of Whitegate refinery

It seems there were major disagreements within Garret FitzGerald’s government in the early 1980s when it came to making a decision about what to do with struggling industries in the Cork Harbour area.

Thirty years later, the future of the oil refinery at Whitegate — just as it was back in 1984 — remains in serious doubt.

Three decades ago, the then finance minister Alan Dukes recommended that the refinery should be closed immediately, while the industry minister, John Bruton, suggested that the facility should be “mothballed”.