MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley has told the Dáil a baseline study "is to be recommended" after the Opposition highlighted the 44 per cent higher than normal incidence of cancer in the Cobh area.
During a debate on the Haulbowline toxic waste controversy, Mr Gormley said reports indicated "there is no immediate threat to human health or the environment in the locality, while of course recognising that this is a problematic site which will ultimately require an extensive and co-ordinated resolution".
The Minister met local residents and Cork TDs in Cork on Tuesday night to discuss the controversy, and he told the Dáil he had re-engaged consultants who carried out a report in 2005 to "carry out an independent and rigorous assessment of site conditions". The analysis is expected to take five weeks and cost €20,000.
He would also "go to Cabinet" about a baseline study on cancer and he would bring proposals to Government by autumn about his proposals for dealing with the site.
However, pressed by Kathleen Lynch (Labour, Cork North Central) about meeting local council officials who would determine how the operation was carried out, Mr Gormley said he would do so when he was in Cork to discuss the Green Paper but that would be in the autumn.
Simon Coveney (FG, Cork South Central) insisted the site in the middle of Cork harbour "is not safe" as he questioned the Minister's "attempt to reassure people that there is no risk to public health".
He pointed to a shoreline sample, which was taken and which showed mercury levels at "28 times the level that should require intervention".
Deirdre Clune (FG, Cork South Central) questioned why the consultants engaged in 2005 to carry out a report, were "on site again to look for chromium 6. People are asking whether . . . the first site survey was fully comprehensive".
The Minister had said the survey followed work carried out by the subcontractor against departmental instruction "but the type of waste would not have changed because it had been accumulating for over 60 years".
This view was echoed by Michael Ahern (FF, Cork East) who said there should be different consultants because "the first response when there is a new report is that these are only covering up on the report they did in 2005".
The Minister said these consultants were hired "exactly because they have done a previous study".
Ms Clune also expressed concern that the Minister should be fully committed to dealing with the issue and "there ought to be enough funding made available in the budget to carry out the required clean-up on the site".
Mr Gormley had told the Dáil that the recent controversy had arisen because a subcontractor continued to uncover subsurface waste when the department's instructions for the short-term were to cap the exposed waste with inert slag material.
David Stanton (FG, Cork East) pointed to the National Cancer Registry report which "indicates that when rates for the Cobh urban area were compared to Ireland at large, the incidence of cancer in Cobh was 44 per cent higher than what might have been expected".
