State to fund €10.6m Silvermines clean-up and restoration project

The Government is to provide over €10 million to fund the clean-up and rehabilitation of former lead and zinc mining sites at Silvermines in Co Tipperary.

An Oireachtas committee also heard yesterday that Minister for Natural Resources Noel Dempsey is in consultation with the Attorney General on possible legal action against the former operator of the site, Mogul of Ireland.

It is envisaged that major works on the project, which could last four years, will begin towards the end of 2006.

In a presentation yesterday to the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, assistant secretary of the Department of Communications Michael Guilfoyle said mining had been carried out at Silvermines under a mixture of State and private leases/licences from the 1900s until some 20 years ago.

He said following complaints about dust-blows and cattle deaths in the area, the Environmental Protection Agency had produced a report in 1999 which found that the Gortmore tailings mining facility would pose a perpetual risk to human and animal health and the environment unless it was properly managed.

Mr Guilfoyle said the department had commissioned external consultants who drew up costed management plans for Mogul of Ireland under the terms of its State mining lease.

He said Mogul responded positively. However, he said that doubts later emerged about the company's financial and technical capability to carry out the work to the standard required.

"While Mogul's initial outline proposal was conceptually acceptable, the detailed final proposals were not acceptable to the department and other stake-holders, as would not provide a sustainable solution to the rehabilitation process," he said.

Mr Guilfoyle said that last January the department concluded that Mogul could not deliver a satisfactory rehabilitation programme.

He said the Minister subsequently secured approval from the Government for funding to carry out remedial work on the affected sites. The cost of the work was estimated at €10.6 million.

"The Government also agreed that the Minister and the Attorney General should discuss and agree a means of recourse against Mogul . . . but the Minister will consider any solution which can produce a reasonable result for the State, commensurate with legal possibilities," he said.