Kilcatherine, Eyeries, County Cork http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENVIRONMENT Directorate E - Implementation & Support to Member States ENV.E.3 - Environmental Enforcement Paul Spaight, Head of Unit 28 December, 2018 Your Reference: ENV.E.3/SG/ad/ [email protected] ; Cc: <[email protected]. Subject: Remediation of hazardous waste sites on Haulbowline Island, Co. Cork Dear Paul – I write to remind you of your letter of 18 May, 2018 in relation to our concerns expressed to Commissioner Karmenu Vella that in spite of the remediation of the 9 hectares of the East Tip of the Irish Steel Site on Haulbowline Island, county Cork, the remainder of the site remains un-remediated, despite undertakings by the Irish authorities that the remediation would be based on a 'whole of island' approach and the ‘ring fencing’ of €61m for this purpose. You will be aware of the commitment made as part of your agreement to close the Waste case against Ireland in 29 September 2015 released to us under the AIE Directive [1] and of the following statement on 8th January 2016 by the Irish Government confirming this agreement: ‘Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney T.D., announced details of the timetable for a two and a half year programme of core remediation works at Haulbowline Island which will see the remediation of the Island completed by mid 2018 at a meeting of the Haulbowline Remediation Project Stakeholders group today (8th Jan 2015). This follows a Government decision to provide a total of €61,000,000 to remediate the location on a “whole of Island basis”, incorporating both the East and South tips and including a ground level remediation of the former ISPAT/Irish Steel factory site.’ [2] Friends of the Irish Environment is a non-profit company limited by guarantee registered in Ireland. It is a member of the European Environmental Bureau and the Irish Environmental Network. Registered Office: Kilcatherine, Eyeries, Co Cork, Ireland. P75 CX53 Company No. 326985. Tel & Fax: 353 (0)27 74771 Email: [email protected] Directors: Caroline Lewis, Tony Lowes However, on 12 December 2018 Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D., was joined by Mayor of the County of Cork Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy and Chief Executive of Cork County Council Tim Lucey ‘on a visit to Haulbowline Island to mark the substantial completion of the remediation of the former East Tip.’ On this occasion while self-congratulations were extensive, no mention was made in the body of the Media Briefing or in the Editors Notes explaining the genesis of the project of the remaining 11 hectares. [3] While the Irish Examiner raised this issue on the day before the visit on our behalf, no reports of the visit mentioned that the majority of the remediation has not been undertaken or clarification of the €61m ‘ring-fenced’ for this purpose. Dail records show that the total expenditure on Haulbowline Island clean up to the end of 2017 was €13m. [4] But in fact the clean-up of the East Tip, announced at the beginning of 2016, required only €2,259,209 in 2016, €3,957,131 in 2017 [5] and €4,832,000 until September 2018 - €11,048,340 – with a further €5,168,000 allocated but unspent for September – December 2018. [6] This gives a figure of €17,832,000 spent by September 2018 with a maximum possible expenditure of €23,000,000. Given that the most recent total Government commitment was €70m [7] - now revised upwards from €61m - provided to the Dail on May 31, 2018, even taking the unspent 2018 funds into account at least €47m remains unspent - more than two- thirds of the funds ringfenced as part of the Government’s agreement with the European Commission three years ago. Our requests for documentation from the local authority have been met with refusal on ‘technical grounds’ in what we believe was a deliberate attempt to avoid providing the documentation the Minister stated they had prepared for the whole of island approach. We note in our renewed request [attached] that the local authority has also removed the plans and detailed bibliography of studies relating to this project which you specifically praised at the time, further undermining the Directive and your Authority. As it is now more than 6 months since your enquiry and statements from the Irish authorities continue to ignore the clear commitments made to you in 2015, we would be grateful if you informed us what steps you plan to take when promises made in the context of closing cases against a member state are subsequently ignored, breaching the duty of loyal cooperation and undermining the very system of justice arising from European Court of Justice settlements. Yours, etc., Tony Tony Lowes, Director REFERENCES Friends of the Irish Environment is a non-profit company limited by guarantee registered in Ireland. It is a member of the European Environmental Bureau and the Irish Environmental Network. Registered Office: Kilcatherine, Eyeries, Co Cork, Ireland. P75 CX53 Company No. 326985. Tel & Fax: 353 (0)27 74771 Email: [email protected] Directors: Caroline Lewis, Tony Lowes [1] https://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/images/cmsfiles/Haulbowline/EU_AIE_33.p df [2] http://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/cork-cms/files/2017-07/573641416.pdf [3] https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2018- 12/Minister%20Creed%20visits%20Haulbowline%20Island%20to%20Mark%20the%20Concl usion%20of%20the%20East%20Tip%20Remediation%20Works.pdf [4] PQ 447, 22 May 2018 [Michael Creed, TD, Minister for Agriculture] [5] PQ 508 23 October 2018 [Michael Creed, TD, Minister for Agriculture] [6] PQ 146, 11 October 2018 [Michael Creed, TD, Minister for Agriculture] [7] Dail Debates, Thursday, 31 May 2018 [Simon Coveney, Tánaiste and Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade] Attached: AIE Request 27.12.18 Cork County Council – Haulbowline All Island Cleanup Friends of the Irish Environment is a non-profit company limited by guarantee registered in Ireland. It is a member of the European Environmental Bureau and the Irish Environmental Network. Registered Office: Kilcatherine, Eyeries, Co Cork, Ireland. P75 CX53 Company No. 326985. Tel & Fax: 353 (0)27 74771 Email: [email protected] Directors: Caroline Lewis, Tony Lowes http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org AIE Officer Environment Directorate Cork County Council Inniscarra Co. Cork 28 December, 2018 Email: [email protected] Please provide the following information under the European Communities (Access to Information on the Environment Directive 2003/4/EC) and Irish Regulations Statutory Instrument No 133 of 2007 as amended and the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters [the Aarhus Convention]: All documentation in relation to extending the Haulbowline Island clean-up to an ‘all- island’ approach’ Dear Sir or Madam; We refer to our request of 26 July 2018 and your decision of 23 August 2018 in which you cite a ‘technical refusal’ for failing to release ‘All documentation in relation to extending the Haulbowline Island clean-up to an ‘all-island’ approach’. Your ‘Technical Refusal’ was based on your interpretation that this request was made for the processes or decision ‘made at a Cabinet level via Government Decision. The Council is not party to such decisions or the processes involved in same,’ you explained. We are at a loss to understand how you can have interpreted our request for your plans to clean up the remaining 11 hectares of the ‘South Tip’ and the steel plant site at Haulbowline site as solely a request for the decision of the Cabinet authorising you to be the lead agency in the clean-up. The then Minister for Agriculture has been quite clear as to what was to be undertaken and had already been undertaken by your authority in this regard, describing in January 2016 a two and half year programme costing €61m that would not only encompass the recently completed East Tip but include ‘a ground level remediation of the former factory site, Friends of the Irish Environment is non-profit Company Limited by Guarantee and a Charity registered in Ireland. It is a member of the European Environmental Bureau and the Irish Environmental Network. Registered Office: Kilcatherine, Eyeries, Co Cork, Ireland. P75 CX53 Company No. 326985. Charities Registration No. 20154530 Tel & Fax: 353 (0)27 74771 Email: [email protected] Trustees and Directors: Dave Johnston, Caroline Lewis, Tony Lowes, Ian Lumley Judy Osborne opening up significant development possibilities for this key strategic location, already the permanent location of the Irish Naval Service.’ According to the Minister as reported in your media release, you ‘devised’ these works. ‘These complex remediation works which have been devised [emphasis added] by Cork County Council who are acting as agents of my own Department in this project, will provide significant employment (for the duration of the works) and eventually ensure that the historic Island of Haulbowline will have a very bright future at the centre of Ireland’s existing dedicated maritime cluster in Cork Harbour”. [1] According to the documentation released to us by the European Commission in relation to the closure of the Waste Case against Ireland, the ‘Etat du dossier au 29/09/2015’ [2] states that ‘the Commission followed up on its [Haulbowline] remediation as it was a ‘key example of the type of enforcement issues central to the Court's judgment. With the signing on 28 July 2015 of the remediation contract and the Government's decision in June 2015 to allocate a further 61 million euros to the project, the Commission is satisfied that the remediation works will be carried out in due course.